We’ve all seen the basic girl meets boy, girl hates boy, girl falls in love with boy although he’s a jerk. This movie fulfills all these steps. Obviously, we know what happens in the end (and if you don’t, I won’t spoil it for you).
I knew what was going to happen, yet I really liked this movie. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a romantic movie with any real plot, any real characters, any real dialogue. (And believe me, I’m a romantic film fanatic and also an English major.)
The characters develop throughout the movie. It’s not just a ’’here-I-am’’ ’’there-you-are’’ and we all fall in love. Bullock (in her role bc I don’t remember her character’s name) has to choose between romantic love and her morals. 2 Weeks Notice is flamboyantly ridiculous at times, yet I get the feeling that these characters are ’’real’’ in some sense and not formulaic. Grant plays a self-indulgent (and patently selfish) brainless billionaire. He got on my nerves a lot which is pretty alarming because in a romantic comedy, the audience is supposed to want the protagonists to end up together. Unfortunately, I came away with the sense that Grant was ultimately too good for Bullock.
I have been a big fan of Hugh Grant for a long time, but I think that this was one of his best romantic comedies yet. I loved him in About a Boy, and I think that he’s really come full circle as an actor. He’s been stuck with the bumbling idiot roles for a while and never really shook off that image, but (to me) he’s finally getting really good at playing deeper roles.
I’ve always thought that Bullock was a little bland for me (and sometimes her voice grated) but I liked her in this film. She was more lively here than I’ve seen since Speed.
The only real con I see is the lack of foils in this movie. There’s ’’another girl’’ who chases after Grant’s character that makes Bullock’s character realize that she is in fact in love with Grant, but the ’’other girl’’ isn’t the catty nympho. The greatest weakness in this romantic film is that there are no strong evil characters that you love to hate. All of them are just so syrupy-sweet towards one another that it nearly gave me a toothache.
What I thought was fantastic was the dialogue. It was witty, but not too intelligently so that I would have to work to figure out the punch-line. It was pretty tasteful.