*** (out of ****)
Starring Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock, Alicia Witt, Dana Ivey, Robert Klein, David Haig, and Heather Burns
Directed & written by Marc Lawrence
2002
102 min PG13
You could be cynical and picture some cancer-tanned executive in a high Hollywood tower. He’s going over his list of attractive young white leads in search of two that have never made a romantic comedy together, and then putting their names into the pipeline for a movie to come out two months later. And you’d probably be right. But Michelangelo also, I’m sure, got a big fat check for the Sistine Chapel. So you can find truth and get paid at the same time.
“Two Weeks Notice” is, of course, a silly little diversion that won’t broaden our understanding of the cosmos by very much. But it’s worth renting with your friends, even if it is a romantic comedy, because the motivations of the characters are universal and the great Hugh Grant is such a terrific schmuck. He’s rich and runs a company, because his father left it to him, and he’s spoiled, trivial, shallow, selfish, and philandering. And I loved watching every second of him because he falls into that category of unbridled id, or “who I’d be if there was no one to stop me.” Sandra Bullock is his exact opposite: a left-leaning activist lawyer trying to defend every classic old building Hugh’s company is trying to knock down.
Why exactly she ends up on his payroll isn’t really important. What matters is that she becomes his conscience and he becomes her excuse for not accomplishing any of her ambitious, lofty goals. Mostly we’re just entertained by the loosely-plotted bickering of these two caricatures of selfless activism and selfish ambition. Hugh has some of the rich, decadent, over-the-top allure of Mr. Burns on “The Simpsons.” (“I own a hotel and I live in the hotel,” he remarks. “My life is very much like Monopoly.”) Sandy is an idealist who has faltered, like Rick Blaine, and we as humans like embittered losers. We may not lean as left as Sandy but we all have things we want to do and often find ourselves looking for ways to get out of them, looking for obstacles and responsibilities.
When the romantic comedy autopilot does kick in it’s as quick and painless as possible. A villain rears his head, a younger girl competes with Sandy for Hugh. The attraction between Sandy and Hugh is plausible, if not enormously compelling. The movie does not enter my fabled 3 Movies in Which I Actually Want the Couple to Get Together, a shortlist so exclusive that I can only remember 2 of the movies. Writer-director Marc Laurence is clean and conventional; the movie was obviously made in a hurry, and even seasoned professionals sometimes goof when it comes to matching exterior weather and inconsistencies between reverse shots. Characters disappear for vast swathes of screen time only to reappear later and make us wonder how many of their scenes got cut.
“Two Weeks Notice” is an hour-and-a-half long, and the first two half-hours, of Hugh being spoiled and Sandy being indignant, are a lot of fun. The last half-hour ties everything together the way the genre must. Try to get a drink then. “Two Weeks Notice” is not as much fun as “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” “Love Actually,” or “About a Boy,” but I’m gonna let it have a pass.
Finished May 31, 2004
Copyright © 2004 Friday & Saturday Night
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