Write a brief review of a film that has changed your understanding of yourself in some way

The film is Notting Hill (1999), a romantic comedy, starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, directed by Roger Michell and written by Richard Curtis who had also written Four Weddings in a Funeral (1994) and Love Actually (2003). I know I might get cringes for this but first watched it when I was sixteen and it really made an impression on me.

Richard Curtis appropriately answers in an interview with for the New Humanist that he honestly believes that there is a tremendous amount of optimism, and love in this world and that it is underrepresented.

Set as the title suggests in Notting Hill, London, it tells a story about Will Thacker, who’s in his 30s, divorced, and owns a struggling bookshop specializing in travel books. Will keeps a diversely underachieving company around him, which consist of a shop assistant Martin (James Dreyfus), tactless artist flat mate Spike (Rhys Ifan), a neurotic sister Honey (Emma Chambers), wheelchair bound best friend Bella (Gina McKee) to list a few.

On an ordinary day at the bookshop, Anna Scott, the biggest film star in the world, walks into his life and a complicated relationship ensues. Richard Curtis describes the starting point of the movie is the idea of a very normal person, going out with a very famous person and how it impinges in their life.

Hugh Grant is an expert with delivering lines in that stammering yet witty and sweet way of his. Richard Curtis and Hugh Grant have worked together with success with Four Weddings and a Funeral before and I nod with agreement when I read Michell saying that no one does Richard (Curtis) better than Hugh (Grant) and no one writes Hugh better than Richard.

As for Julia Roberts, I wonder if there is any actress is better suited to play the part that – some suggests she is playing herself – a star with a dazzling smile and incandescence presence. She is still very much human, erupting into temper in a scene and appears in the next, vulnerable.

The music composed by Trevor Jones, is unabashedly sappy and sets mood of scenes on you with songs like “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone” and “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”.

The details in the movie still makes an impression to this day, like Marc Chagall’s La Marie painting of a floating bride and violin playing goat, which Curtis says depict “a yearning for something that’s lost”. I love this bit because I am currently teaching arts and the context of it to my students.

Film exists from the point of view of the social context. What fascinates me about Notting Hill is it deals with everyday things, the company we keep, the little details that are beautiful or funny, and of course, love.