A breezy, charming rom-com with real star chemistry, witty dialogue, and a gently wistful take on fame, privacy, and ordinary life colliding with fantasy.
Notting Hill
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Romance · Comedy
Fri · 2h 4m
Director: Roger Michell
Starring: Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Gina McKee
Overview
London bookstore owner William Thacker's quiet life turns upside down when a chance encounter with famous actress Anna Scott sparks an unlikely romance challenged by their vastly different worlds.
Director
Roger Michell
Cast
Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Gina McKee
Curator Review
Verdict
A breezy, charming rom-com with real star chemistry, witty dialogue, and a gently wistful take on fame, privacy, and ordinary life colliding with fantasy.
Best for
fans of polished 90s romantic comedies
viewers who like Hugh Grant’s awkward-sincere persona
people who enjoy celebrity-meets-ordinary-person stories
audiences in the mood for a warm, low-stakes comfort watch
Skip if
you want a more modern or subversive romance
you dislike fairy-tale rom-com logic
you prefer sharper, more cynical comedy
you need high dramatic stakes or emotional realism
Overview
Notting Hill is one of the defining studio romances of the late 1990s: polished, easygoing, and built around the fantasy that a very ordinary life can briefly brush against movie-star glamour. The setup is pure wish fulfillment, but the film earns its appeal through timing, softness, and the way it lets embarrassment and tenderness coexist.
Worth noting
Hugh Grant’s hesitant charm is the engine, and Julia Roberts gives the premise enough warmth and self-awareness that it never feels like a gimmick. The supporting ensemble adds texture and comic rhythm, while the London setting gives the movie a lived-in, neighborhood-scale intimacy that keeps the romance grounded.
Bottom line
It’s not especially surprising, and some of its gender dynamics and celebrity mythology feel very of their era. But as a comfort watch, it still lands: funny, romantic, and just wistful enough to feel like more than a postcard.
Top Letterboxd reviews
minick (2.5★) · 28990 likes
so like.....his book store only sold travel books??? thats got to be the worst business idea ever
maya (4★) · 20039 likes
hugh grant as y/n
kennedy (3★) · 17456 likes
love is real and it exists solely in hugh grant's hair
allison (5★) · 15355 likes
hugh grant telling julia roberts "my relatively inexperienced heart would, i fear, not recover if i was, once again, cast aside as i would absolutely expect to be" should've won this movie a best original screenplay oscar
lucy (4★) · 12957 likes
“you’re the most beautiful woman in the world...... fancy a fuck?”
Themes
unlikely romance, celebrity and privacy, ordinary life vs fame, wish fulfillment, London life, social awkwardness, found family, class and status