Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1038 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-11-15
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 119 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
They don't really make many romantic comedies like Notting Hill anymore--blissfully romantic, sincerely sweet, and not grounded in any reality whatsoever. Pure fairy tale, and with a huge debt to Roman Holiday, Notting Hill ponders what would happen if a beautiful, world-famous person were to suddenly drop into your life unannounced and promptly fall in love with you. That's the crux of the situation for William Thacker (Hugh Grant), who owns a travel bookshop in London's fashionable Notting Hill district. Hopelessly ordinary (well, as ordinary as you can be when you're Hugh Grant), William is going about his life when renowned movie star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) walks into his bookstore and into his heart. After another contrived meeting involving spilled orange juice, William and Anna share a spontaneous kiss (big suspension of disbelief required here), and soon both are smitten. The question is, of course, can William and Anna reconcile his decidedly commonplace bookseller existence and her lifestyle as a jet-setting, paparazzi-stalked celebrity? (Take a wild guess at the answer.) Smartly scripted by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and directed by Roger Michell (Persuasion), Notting Hill is hardly realistic, but as wish fulfilment and a romantic comedy, it's irresistible. True, Roberts doesn't really have to stretch very far to play a big-time actress who makes $15 million per movie, but she's more winning and relaxed than she's been in years, and Grant is sweetly understated as a man blindsided by love. Together, in moments of quiet, they're a charming couple, and you can feel her craving for real love and his awe and amazement at the wonderful person for whom he has fallen. The only blight on the film is its overbearing pop soundtrack, though Elvis Costello's heart-wrenching version of "She" gets poignant exposure. With Rhys Ifans as Grant's scene-stealing, slovenly housemate and Alec Baldwin in a sly, perfectly cast cameo. --Mark Englehart

Special Features

• Theatrical Trailer
  
• Interactive moving menus
  
• A Travel Guide To Notting Hill
  
• Cast and Filmmakers Biographies
  
• Film Highlight and Production Note Screens

DVD Technical Information:

• Widescreen
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Anamorphic
  
• Running Time: 119 minutes
  
• Soundtrack Language: English, Dolby Digital Stereo 5.1
  
• Subtitles: English for Hard of Hearing, Dutch

Synopsis
Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant forge memorable chemistry in this charmer about William, an unassuming bookstore owner in London's Notting Hill section and Anna, a Hollywood actress who, against the odds, are able to fall in love. After Anna wanders into William's shop while filming on location in London, the two share an instant attraction and find themselves attempting to forge a normal relationship despite Anna's megawatt star power. Screenwriter Richard Curtis (FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL) has crafted a traditional romantic comedy which is surprisingly frank in it's depiction of the lives of the rich and famous and the price they pay for success.

Customer Reviews

Dazzling film. Dire DVD.
The Main Feature: A delicious romantic comedy - one of the earliest and unquestionably one of the best. Hugh Grant plays the floppy-haired and quietly charming William Thacker who owns a Travel Bookstore in Notting Hill. Julia Roberts stars as, well, herself - the most famous film star in the world. One day, the two collide. What follows is a wonderfully soothing tale of romance; where divine comedy is sprinkled with poignant reflection, and where both leads and supporting actors are excellent, often beguiling. This is one of those rare films that's as good the first time you curl up with it on a Friday night, as it is when you're laughing (and crying) at it for the twenty-seventh time on a drizzly Sunday afternoon.

Highlights: A fabulous script that deftly weaves humour with occasional melancholy - no better showcased than the ill-fated guinea foul meal. William's Welsh lodger, Spike - "well chosen briefs I'd say; chicks love grey. Nice, firm buttocks."! Elvis Costello's heart-wrenching version of `She' that opens and closes the film. Julia Roberts' smile and eyes - enchanting.

Overall Package/Extras: Disappointingly few extras - and even those are text based: a travel guide to Notting Hill and Cast and Filmmakers Biographies, both of which are far better done by London Tourism websites and IMDB...

The one disk is packaged in a boring, standard plastic DVD case. There is a thin accompanying booklet which contains more brief - and unremarkable - biographies of the cast.

Verdict: Dazzling film. Dire DVD. Fortunately, the former is that good that it still makes this DVD fantastic value.

One of the best romantic films ever!!
I love this film! I'm not a huge fan of romantic comedies but this one is an exception. I love the story because I kind of hope that Julia Roberts will walk in to my shop and fall for me! I think this is the key to the success of the story, that a Hollywood A-list celebrity meets an ordinary guy and they have a relationship. Not likely to happen but fun to imagine.

There are some great performances throughout, set in a great part of London and its full of laughs! I love the ending in the press conference when Hugh's character tells her he has made a mistake and wants her back in "coded" language which the Journalists slowly cotton on to and the place errupts! A great heart warming film. It needs 10 stars!

classic!
how anyone can say this film is bad is beyond me!

it's one of the best chick-flicks around and i love the film so much i've nearly worn out my tape! It's not really about Notting Hill it's about a person who lives there and falls in love with a hollywood star. Who cares that it doesnt have the Carnival in it.

Julia Roberts is one of my favourite actresses, she's briliant and, although i dont class Hugh Grant as one of my faves, he's so good in this film as the hopeless Will! I love Spike and Will's sister. Spike just cracks me up all the time.

i just love this film and definately think you should buy it, ignore the bad reviews - or take them into account but dont believe them! this film is fabulous!