I’ve tried for most of my life to restrain my fondness for Hugh Grant, but as a mortal human woman, I simply can’t resist his floppy-haired, oh-so-British charms, which were arguably at their zenith in the 1999 film Notting Hill. I hadn’t actually seen the movie since I was 13, though, so would the Grantian X factor hold up on a rewatch? Read on to find out.
- We open on a paparazzi frenzy awaiting Julia Roberts, a.k.a. Anna Scott (bad fake celebrity name), and I must admit that casting Julia, one of 1999’s top stars, as a top star in this movie was pretty clever.
- Aw, I love Julia with a chin-length bob!
- I think I just realized in this moment that this is a different film from America’s Sweethearts.
- Hey, Hugh Grant said “Notting Hill” ! Everyone drink!
- God, I love the way British people say weekend.
- Literally every lesbian I know would envy Hugh Grant’s hair in this movie.
- Imagine turning a profit on a travel bookshop! I miss the ’90s. (Yes, I was a toddler for most of them, but that doesn’t preclude nostalgia.)
- Hey, it’s Julia Roberts in a beret browsing at the travel bookshop! You can tell she’s incognito because she’s wearing transition lenses.
- Personally, if I were an internationally famous celebrity, I would not go to the house of a random stranger even if he had just foppishly spilled coffee on me—but then I guess there would be no movie.
- There is no more Hugh Grant move than offering a woman apricots soaked in honey. (Say yes, Julia! Those sound delicious!)
- Damn, I love Julia’s bad-bitch little crop top.
- Kiss!
- God, the way people from the UK say yogurt (yoghurt?) is so viscerally horrifying to me.
- LOL at Hugh pretending to be from Horse and Hound in order to flirt with Julia during a press junket.
- Man, there really was a floppy-hair epidemic among young, straight white men in 1999.
- And Hugh Grant was patient zero!
- As someone who has interviewed celebrities at several press junkets, I must chime in here to say that the celebrity rarely falls in love with you (in my experience, at least).
- Wow at Julia in menswear! Très chic!
- I have to admit that Hugh blagging his way through a fake interview is very me coded.
- Literally, this entire sequence of Hugh being forced to talk to the other stars of Julia’s film is all too familiar to any journalist who’s ever been unprepared for an interview.
- Hey, it’s child actor Mischa Barton!
- Do British people really cook guinea fowl?
- For that matter, did Hugh really bring Julia over to his sister’s place without providing a spoiler alert that he was inviting a famous actress to dinner? Major party foul!
- Much like a real dinner party, this dinner-party scene is taking forever.
- Some gross bros are talking shit about Julia, so Hugh goes over to handle business, and it’s...pretty hot, TBH, even though he ends up getting laughed out of the café.
- Celebrities: They’re just like us! They get their feelings hurt!
- Oh, shit, Julia has a boyfriend? And it’s Alec Baldwin?
- And he’s a total dick who cracks fat jokes about his girlfriend? Ugh.
- Why have we not seen Hugh’s little wire-framed glasses before?
- OMG, it’s my girl Emily Mortimer in an extremely small cameo!
- Are we really only...an hour into this movie? With an hour to go?
- Oh, God, I forgot about this whole plotline involving Julia’s nudes being sold. This movie really was ahead of its time, unfortunately.
- Well, that Mel Gibson reference didn’t age well.
- Not to be crude, but do Hugh and Julia ever have sex in this movie? Or is it just angsty kissing?
- Oh, wait...it’s implied that, yes, they do. Complaint retracted.
- Oh, no, the paparazzi show up to bother Hugh and Julia after their big night together!
- If one thing is true about British men, it’s that they’re going to offer you a cup of tea when you’re upset.
- All these shots of Portobello Road are making me desperate to hit up a farmers market.
- “Ooh, sexy cardi” is simply the most English phrase I have ever heard uttered.
- Julia is mad at Hugh because she thinks his friend tipped off the paps, and he’s extremely floppy-haired and sad about it.
- Did Hugh’s sister just propose to his weird roommate out of nowhere?
- Julia wants to get back together, but Hugh isn’t into it. Really, Hugh? She’s hot and famous! Though I guess therein lies the problem, as he’s worried about her leaving him again.
- At yet another press junket, Hugh comes to his senses and professes his feelings. Cue love, marriage, pregnancy, romantic garden scene, et cetera. Yay!