SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello and welcome to Light Camera Aggro, the podcast with two friends, one film and very little agreement. I'm Phil, you're a daft prick.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

And I'm Nikki, and I'm surreal but nice. This week it's Phil's turn to share a movie he loves, and today he's bought the 1999 film Notting Hill. Please feel free to like and subscribe and by all means comment below.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

I know that will come soon enough, but first, how's your week been?

SPEAKER_03 0:32

I've had a lovely weekend when we're recording this on Wednesday. I was in London at the weekend, which feels nice and appropriate because this film is very London, based in London, set in an area of London. Um wasn't in any bit that was reminiscent of this film's version of London, but you know, um I wasn't far actually. I was I was uh I went to the Royal Albert Hall for a thing, and that's in South Kensington, that's the nearest tube, and I was just looking on the map before just a second you know when you go get the tube, you don't actually have a clue where you are in relation to other places if you just go yeah. So I looked, and actually it's a it's about a 53-minute walk from South Kensington tube to Portobello Road, which is where a lot of this is supposed to be. Yeah. In Nottinghill. So you know, yeah, nearby-ish, kinda. Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Because I I really like this film.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

I've been I had uh yeah, well, we'll talk about this. I had obviously watched this film and it came out and then went to Notting Hill just to see didn't see anything that reminded me of anything in the film, but still. Um but yeah, it's how about you and what have you been doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

So I I've just been blasting through movies. Obviously, been doing a lot of little shorts on our channel, just little two-minute reviews of films that I like over from over the years, um, which I will continue, but I've just been any free time just spamming movies to refresh myself and just talk a little bit about them on the channel.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Busy work, but basically, any free time has just been doing that. And went to see my daughters, you know.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

You did a bit of childcare parenting.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

I mean, 17 and 20 don't need childcare. My I don't know, I don't think I've mentioned this on Procast previously. My eldest daughter has been a camera woman for Manchester City women, which is very, very proud of.

SPEAKER_03 2:33

So, yeah, so that's pretty much it. Uh okay, so before we start, remember this is going to be full of spoilers. If you haven't seen Notting Hill yet, now's the time to pause the pod and come back when you're done. We'll be waiting. Okay, Phil, why did you choose Notting Hill?

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Don't be sarcastic.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

It's an interesting chart. It's not what I expected from you.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

So this is the thing, you know. Obviously, when you look at my movie choices over the first series of things I like to talk about, they tend to be science fiction, action movies, loud, brash.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

They tend to be good versus evil from the 70s and 80s that you had when you were little boys.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

This this just shows another side to me. Okay. Yeah. Um I do, you know, I do love the odd rom com. Um I particularly like Hugh Grant in rom coms. I don't know, I mean he seems to play the same character a lot in these types of movies.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

During this period, I think.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah, I I just like that setting. It's like a middle class England that probably doesn't really exist, and uh it just feels nice and warm, and generally these types of movies and actually driving up here, the soundtracks I really like for them. You know, this has got a great soundtrack, the the songs that are on there, the actual score to this movie is amazing. Uh and it just it just feels warm, makes me feel warm and cozy.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

Okay. So, well I watched it so it came out in 99, and I I think I will I think I watched it at the cinema. And I wanted to watch it, I wanted to see it.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

I seen it at the cinema.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

Because I'd watched Four Weddings in '94 and thought that was really funny. I do like Hugh Grant, still do. Obviously, this was his era of rom-com time repeatedly. Um, but you know, I I liked him a lot. I still think he's a great actor. I think he does better he's done better things in more recent years. But I wanted to watch it, and I remember enjoying it when I watched it back then. I remember I also agree with you about the music. I think Richard Curtis does have some great soundtracks to his films, and so I think I had this on CD. So when I was watching it for this, the music immediately became, you know, it was like, oh yeah, I had that. I remember listening to that. I remember that, I remember that. And that was nice to remember. Um, and I at this point, since this was 99, I'd also enjoyed like Richard Curtis, he hadn't done loads of stuff in terms of big blockbustery films, but it I knew him from Black Adder, I knew him from Comet Relief, um, and he also did the tall guy, which had been out a few like years before, and I really liked it.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

Emma Thompson, yeah. So I really liked that. So there was nothing wrong with this when it came out, there's nothing that put me off it, and I remember enjoying it, and I probably saw it a few times back then. I think I had it on DVD, but what's fair to say is I haven't seen this since maybe the early 2000s until this week, and that was an interesting, an interesting experience to watch it again.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_03 5:34

So we'll we'll get into that as we go along.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

So should we get started? Yeah, go for it. So it's start with a great opening song.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

She. Yes, but he sings this the end one. The Charles Alsnavo is the original, and I think the original is the first playing of it, and at the end, it's the Elvis Costello version.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Which okay, I knew there wasn't Elvis Navarre. Yeah, yeah, there is definitely. And there's lots of great footage of Julia Roberts, uh, what look like movie premiers. It's a montage. Yeah, we all love a montage. Uh and obviously the voiceover.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

I like a good voiceover at the start of the film.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

It's Lady Ryan.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Well, we'll factor our hero in the in the in the movie.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Um just talking uh Anna Scott and Well, he's talking about his life in Notting Hill and how you know you hadn't expected to all sort of change one day when you met her. It just I just oh, you know, it's it felt it feels root one of how to set the scene.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Well, it worked for me.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

I'm I'm happy for you, but also I would suggest that Richard Curtis at this point could do what he liked because he'd had such a big blockbuster before weddings. So no one is probably going to like tell him to rewrite it a million times. I don't think everyone, if they didn't have that, his the level of cachet that he bought at the time would have been given the same leeway. That's what I think.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Possibly, possibly, but I thought it was a it was a good opening monologue that helped build the it tells us what's got happening immediately, yeah. Yeah. And eventually we start seeing Will's house in Notting Hill and introduces to Spike who asks who uh arrives and asks for advice on a t-shirt.

SPEAKER_03 7:11

Can we just discuss Spike?

SPEAKER_00 7:14

But this this so I do know this um Julia Roberts was petrified of Reese Evans in this okay. You mean because Spike because he was dirty and it like obviously the character is it was meant to be unclean and stuff, so he stayed in character while while he was filming this, and she was just freaked out by him. I remember seeing an interview with Reese Finns and he was just he he was laughing about it.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

I just find the character of Spike hugely obnoxious, and I can't remember I think at the back in the day I watched it and probably thought he was more amusing than I do now. I don't find him amusing in the slightest now. I mean I just he's just gross. He's gross. But he's supposed to be. And he's completely sexist and he's supposed to be. Like Will you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

No, not at all. Will's just took him in and he's obviously got to pay the bills, so well does yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

I mean, the the the economy, the money that they have, he's got a bookshop that no one goes into and he's like skint, and yet his house is massive in Notting Hill. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, all of this we have to suspend our disbelief so many times in this film. And the most basic thing at the beginning is yes, this is Will's house. He just has one lodger, and that's enough to pay that mortgage. He's got a business that doesn't seem to ever really sell it. We see him buy we see him sell books to Anna Scott, and that's it. I don't think we see anyone else buying a book. People come in, but then don't have you know. Do you know what I mean? Well, we'll touch on the book. This frustrates me anyway, go on, go on.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Okay, so the t-shirts on offer didn't look right, and then he comes down in one which says, I think it's something like you're the most beautiful girl in the world, or something like that, and Will goes, That's perfect, and as he turns round, it says on the back of it, fancier fuck.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Yeah, fancier fuck, classic classic, stay classy.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Um choose a type of character, but but what I will say, slight criticism of this, for Spike, who is the obviously character who's not washing a lot, all these t-shirts were immaculately clean, it just didn't fit.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

I just struggle with this setup. And at the beginning as well, so what we see Will's voiceover before we even meet Spike, we see him sort of talking through the the zany characters of Portobello Road, you know, the tattoo artists and the the sort of the edgy hairdressers and stuff. And I think this plays into my issue, which I've come to realise I have issues with Richard Curtis. All the characters are drawn and are just stereotypes, they're just large, broad stroke stereotypes, and there's very little nuance, and I I struggle with that because I don't know, I just I need to put I need okay, edit this shit out, but I'm trying to get my thoughts. I really struggle with being told what I'm supposed to think by a voiceover and being steered towards this stereotype and that stereotype. It happens a few times in this film. Here's the here's the tattoo plays with someone who regrets whatever it was. Here's this hairdress, and someone walks out with blue hair. I just feel like everything is bold, massively generalized stereotypes that aren't particularly funny and don't particularly add anything. And I it makes me cringe watching it.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

But it probably was funny of the time. Maybe I found it funnier then. You also forgot the hairdressers where everyone comes out with blue hair whether they want to or not.

SPEAKER_03 10:49

Yeah, but that's not funny. But it was at the time.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

I don't think the humour has held up. Hang on, I've cut your hair several times and you've got a haircut where I like whether you like it or not.

SPEAKER_03 11:00

I go in for all sorts of I bring all my pictures, me in Spo pictures, and I always come out with a Bob. Yeah, I don't think a Bob. I I struggled with I struggled with the we'll talk more about stereotypes as we go into the actual characters that were, you know, the main characters. But I struggle with the I I I don't think this has held up well in that sense, in terms of the humour. I just didn't I didn't I wasn't offended by anything, but I didn't find any of it funny.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Yeah, it's weird.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

And you're the one who likes comedy allegedly and I find this quite amusing, this film.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

I think you may have different senses of humour, or we find different things funny.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Probably.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

But yeah, anyway, sorry, I just took us back there.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

So Will walks to his travel book shop and we get to meet his assistant Martin. Yeah, who's played by James Dreyfus. Yes. Um James Dreyfus, I was very small cameo in this you know, but very different to other characters I've seen him play where he's quite loud and brash.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

In g this would be Pete Gimme Gimme Gimme years, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Thereabouts, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

The whole thing to me feels like this is like a time capsule of the 90s. That's not always a bad thing, you know, but it really did take me back to having him on screen, and again, gimme gimme gimme. Also, the guy who we sit in this scene we spot nicking a book down his pants is Dylan Moran. Yeah, and that's black books, and that sort of again feels so 90s. These are people who you saw on the screen all the time in comedies, and I'm sure they're still doing their thing, but I'm not aware of what they're doing anymore. It feels like they're rooted in this particular decade.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

Yeah, that's this era.

SPEAKER_03 12:34

And then the other thing I saw when we had Will walk into his house before this scene, he's got magnetic poetry on his fridge, and I think everyone well, maybe not everyone, but a lot of people have magnetic poetry, including myself in the 90s. Did you have magnetic poetry? You're looking confused.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

No, I think I just had the alphabet of magnets on my fridge. Not a poetry fan, I'm afraid.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

No, I mean it it was a funny thing to have, but it again it's something that that I saw that a lot then, but not now. And I get it's a it's a time capsule, this film.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

So the movie star Anna Scott walked into the bookstore.

SPEAKER_03 13:10

And my question is, why?

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Because she's looking to buy a travel book.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

Why? Why would she be there doing that?

SPEAKER_00 13:16

She'd have people. No, but she wants to do things herself, and you've got to give it to this.

SPEAKER_03 13:21

Um put thoughts into her head. She wants to do her book travel shop.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

So this so this is the thing. You're putting thoughts into her head by going that she would have people to do that.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

No, my issue is I just I find so much of this story implausible. And obviously a big thing of it, the implausibility of an regular everyday guy meeting a superstar, mega famous woman, that's implausible. But we're gonna build a story around it, okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

But there's so many other implausibilities all the way through. Okay. Do you know this is based on a thing? Yes, I do. We don't know who it is, but I don't know which of the 13 news. I just but then it so so it let's let's jump ahead, right? Okay, rather than your negativity.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Well, it uh it just it was it just fascinated me watching this again for the first time in maybe 15 years, how little I was being taken along by the narrative. I just found it so daft. Now maybe you said you've watched it a few times because I think you said before we started recording you watched this most recently, before this week, last year. Yeah, and you kind of come back to it all the time.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

It's a it's a you know, if you want to feel warm and fuzzy, then this is something I will put on.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

So I've not had that kind of regularity with it. So this was almost like watching it again for the first time, although things you know obviously came back to me as they happened. And I was really surprised with how little um you know, uh all fiction you have to suspend your disbelief. But if uh if it's written well, then you do willingly, you suspend your disbelief and you are taken on board whether someone's gone to space or someone's you know doing the shopping, whatever you are what asked to believe, if it's done well, you believe it. And I found myself just going, What? regularly. It's so I don't I didn't do that the first time, I'll actually.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

So in in when she walks in, I think there's for me there's some funny moments okay in here. There's the guy trying to rob the book, yeah. And he asks for an autograph and says, Rufus, you belong in jail. Yeah, you know, a nice one. He's like my number, and I was just like, that's just ridiculous. Then I like the the line that um Will says about the the travel book, and she goes, Oh, it's signed. He said, Yeah, he would I couldn't stop him. If you can find one that's not signed, it's worth a fortune.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Little tiny, just little tiny lines like that just make me smile all the way through.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

So then she she buys books and leaves, and then Martin comes back and he goes, You guess who's been in it? And then he decides not to tell her, tell him. Um, and then they drink the coffee rather quickly, I think. But it looks like there's nothing in the cup, you know. It's yeah. So he decides he starts to go out and get some orange juice, and on his way back, he bumps into Anna Scott completely covering in an orange juice. Classic. Yep. I'm sure if you watch it back, she's already got all the orange juice on the shape before she even bumps into it. I think it's one of those mistakes. Yeah. Um I I think the first initial exchange goes quite well between Will and that and in the street. In the shop. And then obviously this happens. He then invites her to the house to get changed, and she's like, Where's gimme yards? Now, do Americans deal in yards? I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

Yeah, it's all it's all imperial. Right, it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

And he's like, It's there, it's that blue. So go in and then she goes upstairs, gets changed, and comes down in what looks like evening wear, like a bit of a it's a sparkly crop top. And matching skirt. And then he tries to offer her a drink where she repeats no repeatedly.

SPEAKER_03 17:01

And then Which should be the end of it. Yeah, because she said no.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

And he's was like orange juice, was like sparkling water, would you like this? And then he got as this thing about peaches and honey. Apricots. Apricots. Yeah. Yeah, like same thing. Um and then as she's leaving, she comes, you know, she leaves and then comes back for the she leaves a bag, so she has to call him. She's coming back, and then before she goes, she kisses him.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

Implausible. Why? Why? This is my issue with this whole film. She wouldn't. Nothing about that exchange has shown that she's into him. He right, here's here's a positive thing. Hugh Grant is a brilliant actor, and I love him in everything he's ever done because he can do no wrong in my eyes. I just think he's a great actor. But when he was doing these sorts of films, he was he does them really well. He does what the script has asked him to do. But for m for me, the script is really cringe, and I know that the whole thing, and I think Richard Curtis has said before, he writes himself. So he writes the bumbling awkward woman, uh person who's around bumbling with women, and fair play, right? What you know, no problem with that. And he puts these words that presumably he feels are really authentic, because this is what he would say, into Hugh Grant's mouth, and I cringe because they sound so not how people speak. Now we've talked before, for example, about in Shirley Valentine it was so scouse, and we were like, This is like people we know, and maybe people who are not from Liverpool or the Merseyside region would feel similarly. So I get that you know, maybe there are some people who would speak like this. I just find it really hard to buy into. But Hugh Grant does a really good job at being the bumbling, awkward, nervy guy with the apricots in the hoodie or whatever it's called syrup, I can't remember what it was. Surreal but nice comments. All that, you know, all of that. He does it all really well, and I believe that he's nervous. And I think oh Julia Roberts is brilliant. She can again can do no wrong, she plays this role really well. But what she's given to do is not enough. Nothing in this exchange makes me think that when she comes back for the bag she's accidentally left, she will kiss this complete stranger when she is presumably inundated with random fans, randoms in the street. I know she might not think he's a complete psycho because he hasn't done anything psychotic, but why on earth would she do? Why what what? What?

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Because it's Hugh Grant.

SPEAKER_03 19:24

Oh well it's not Hugh Grant, it's bumbling nervy Wilfacker. But but the thing is thrown a drink over already.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

In a situation like that, and somebody as beautiful and as famous as Anna Scott, yes, normal people would not have the confidence to go up to somebody like her. It would always be the overconfident um knob heads basically. So when she's met somebody who's really nice and talked to her like a normal person.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

He did not talk to her like a normal person.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Yeah, if I did. April Cops. Um, but he was he was nice. Maybe it was just an attraction thing, and also we find out later in the movie she's having relationship troubles, and somebody who showed her a little bit of attention.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

I think we're putting far too much thought into the motivations. I think we've I think you're putting too much thought about it. I think we put more too more thought into the motivations of these characters than Richard Curtis did when he wrote it, and that's my issue.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Yeah, so the next scene we see Will watching TV with Spike, and it's a movie with Anna Scott in, and he mu mumbles the line, somewhere in the world there's a man who's allowed to kiss her. No, no, and Will just doesn't say nothing.

SPEAKER_03 20:34

So okay, oh how can I get into this? Right, two things. First of all, let's go for the easy one. I can't stand feet, don't need to see Spike's feet. Yeah. I hate there's too much feet in this movie. We see Wills later, there's no reason to. I guess they're doing a kind of Spike's feet are absolutely filthy, gross, disgusting, and wills aren't, but even so, we don't need to do that. Keep the feet away. Not the feet for free. Right, the second thing. So, one of the reasons, again, I enjoyed Richard Curtis' films back in the day, and I'm not alone in this. This is not me just coming up with this great truth that I've uncovered. Loads of people think like this, I think. I've read a load of articles. He's he's always obviously doing male gays, fine. He's writing male characters, and he's again writing characters that he feels are like him, fine. That's what writers do. But the women are so two-dimensional. So we know nothing about Anna Scott. I mean, we can say that the characters know the actress from what they've seen, her, you know, the persona, but no one actually knows what she's like for real. And so Will's had this exchange for five minutes. Still, we don't still don't know what she's like. She says no a few times and then kisses in randomly and goes. There's not we don't know much about Anna Scott. And I was argue we don't know much about her in the by the end of the film either. But like, this idea that these women are goddesses, somewhere there's a man who's allowed to kiss her. She's amazing. Tim McKinney's uh line at one point is Anna's a goddess. This it's just uh it's so kind of oh, we're just mere mortals, and these women are just amazing. It's like stop putting women on a pedestal, right? Really rounded, interesting, good character.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Don't forget, but don't forget, she is the biggest, supposed to be the biggest movie star on the planet at that point. So you will get people who will just elevate her because of her status as that movie star.

SPEAKER_03 22:25

I just struggle with the dialogue. I just I just think loads of things that are said between friends, between people who fancy each other in this film and in many other Richard Coates films would never actually be said out loud in real life at any point. And these aren't you know kind of crazy fantasy films, these are supposed to be mi rooted in supposed real life.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:45

I struggle with the dialogue.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

Fair play. Okay, sorry. So cut to a scene where these seem to be sat on a rooftop balcony.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

Mm-hmm, yeah, the above the it's the lot uh roof, isn't it, of the flat or the house?

SPEAKER_00 22:57

Yeah, spikes in a a wetsuit. Yeah. With yeah, and and the goggles a prescription.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

I think that's just set up so that you can wear the goggles in the cinema later on.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Yeah, there is foreshadowing. It's random, yeah. Just as a comedy moment. And Will asked Spike if there's been any messages, and he goes, Oh, your mother called, um such and such, and he said he goes, No. He goes, Oh, some girl so strange call, some American girl called Anna called the other day and said to ring somewhere and call it Flintstone. He said, very strange call, and then Will panics then and then rings, and then the conversation's like you've been playing a coolie's like no least cool person ever.

SPEAKER_03 23:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

So they arrange for him to go to the hotel and see her.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

The Rits. And the Rits. Again, I struggled with why would she ask him to go to the Ritz? For tea. Well, it wasn't for tea, was it? That's the first thing. But but before that, they've had five minute five minute conversation where he doesn't listen to what she says, he just keeps trying to give her things. Then randomly she kisses him. I don't get it. And now she's ringing come to a press junket.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

No, she doesn't.

SPEAKER_03 24:08

I know she doesn't, yes, but that's still what happens.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

She thinks the press junket's gonna be over, but he comes right bang in the middle of the press junket.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

And I I quite find this very, very funny. Okay. Er he's he's got to ask her questions, um, and he pretends to be from Horse and Hound. Yes. Uh is there any horses in this movie? No, it's set in space.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

And it's her agent just looking as if to go, what are you even asking? Who is the agent?

SPEAKER_03 24:38

Oh, that guy.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

I always get him mixed up with Derek Jacoby.

SPEAKER_03 24:43

It's definitely not Derek Jacobi.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

I know it's not him.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

Um I know exactly who he is. He's been in a bunch of stuff. I saw him in um uh John Shrapnel, and he's been he's done loads of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

I've seen him in a lot of twenty.

SPEAKER_03 24:55

Yeah, he's one of those people that just pops up in things. He's been in a Doctor Who, he's been in Oh, he's in the Winterstell, Brandon's Theatre thing. Um National Theatre Live Macbeth.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

I've seen him in a lot of things. I've seen him in a lot of things.

SPEAKER_03 25:09

Yeah, he's a very recognisable face on on TV.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Yeah, so he he's like basically eye rolling at some of the questions, and then when he leaves the room, Anna's like, Oh, I'm really sorry, I thought this would be over, and and that, and he's like, Oh, it's okay, it's okay. And he asks her, is she busy tonight? She says, Yes. So he says, Okay, well, it was lovely, gives her some flowers, and then he's ushered into other rooms where he has to interview other members of the cast, and I love the bit where he's he says to the guy, Did you relate to the character? He goes, No. Yeah, he says, 'Cause he's a flesh-eating robot.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

And you know, when he was talking to the girl, like, well, actually, we'll talk about girl in a minute, but the actual childrio. No, the actual child, yeah. That's Misha Barton from the OC.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

No, is it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

I always knew that at the time. Well, when the OC came out, I knew that that she'd been in that when she was young.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Okay. Um, but yeah, she'd done 22 films. Yeah. And he said, What who's your favourite actor? She says, Leonardo, and he goes, Da Vinci, goes, DiCaprio.

SPEAKER_03 26:16

But that's not even funny because he knows that Leonardo da Vinci isn't an actor. Well, it's not true.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

I I get that, but it it kind of works.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

Um, okay, my Pep pee, this is another Curtis Pep peeve for me, and it's across all his films of this period anyway. The male protagonists always, habitually, and all the characters refer to women as girls. So there's a bit where it's coming up and where he's talked to Anna Scott and he's sort of actually got like a minute alone because the PR guy's gone out, and he talks about it's like a dream, whatever, and she said, What would happen, or whatever? And he says he'd kiss the girl. No, because a girl is a child. Kiss a woman, they never ever, and it's just it's not once or twice, it's habitually women are described as girls by the male characters and possibly by the female characters as well. It's clearly a vernacular that Curtis uses.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

Right, I've not picked up on that.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Well, honestly, but fair point it happens repeatedly in this film and in others. The girl, oh you know, oh I don't know, it just drives me mad. But it does with you know, it does in real life as well. So sorry, I'll get back down off my hobby horse.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Yeah, stop ruining my movie. So he gets called back into the room with Anna. Yeah, and she says that thing she had to do that night, she's no longer doing it. So he then remembers that it's his sister's birthday meal. Yes. And she goes, Well, I'll be a date. And he's like a bit taken back that she would do that. Um he takes her along to the date.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

Yes. So no, do you know what? Some of the I'm I have mixed feelings, and some of them are good feelings, about the scenes where it's his group of mates. Because I do like films where it's a group of mates. Yeah. You know I did Peter's friends in the last series. Yep. I like an ensemble cast with a group of mates. Um, this group of friends is interesting. They're not horrible people, they seem supportive of will. I think it is indicative of, you know, when you are someone who is living in London, for example, or a big city where you haven't necessarily grown up and you move there, then you end up with friends. Um, you know, you you're not with family members around you. You end up you you create family dynamics within your group of friends. It feels very um of its time because the TV show friends, you know, this was this is what was how it was. I like that. And I I don't dislike any of his friends particularly. I dislike Spike, but he's not in that group. There's uh it's fascinating, like I say, it's a time capsule. The idea that how old are these people supposed to be?

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Mid-30s, late 30s to late 30s, I would say.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

I I worked out when I was watching it when Anna said something like she's basic she'd been uh doing this since she was 19 and she's basically been on a diet for 10 years, that would make her 29. I've no idea if that she like I don't know if that was what they were trying to do, but that's what I assumed. And I think maybe they're all supposed to be like. Well, I don't know. I'd yeah, I th I I think they're all supposed to be maybe early 30s. And it's fascinating. This is not a criticism of this film particularly, but it is fascinating how the economy changes over time. The idea that a group of 30-somethings now are sitting around a very lovely Notting Hill house near it. I was looking up the locations, it's all is literally off Portobello Road, the houses they filmed in. Well, the out the exteriors anyway. I think they're even interiors with studios, but um, it is very, very spenny, you know, where they live. Um, but this group of friends who all have like I mean, I just I can't remember the names of the friends, so I'll just have to say that. Gina McKee, she's a lawyer. She's got cases. Yeah, disabled. Yes, we'll talk about that in a minute. Um, but she's like a lawyer. You've got her husband, Tim McKinnony, who's literally wearing a s every scene, a a waistcoat and shirt with sleeves rolled up, even when they're having like evenings in their own home cooking. What? Do you know what I mean? These do not look like early 30s somethings now. You've got Hugh Bonneville, who I do actually find his character quite amusing. He's good, did he? But he walks in and he, oh, I wrote it down. He says, Bob looks up at work again, millions down the drain. He works in the city, and that did amuse me, even though obviously.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

And the fact that he didn't recognise Anna Scott and talk about acting amuse me. That's amused me.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

Okay, whatever. But I find him funny the fact he's quite sort of down on himself and oh lost lost millions again, oh you know, for another day at work. But these have all they've all got very grown-up jobs and have very grown-up homes. That's not a thing now. That is just not a thing. Early 30s in central London or near central London, they're all in house shares. You know, people are not able to get mortgages on their own these days or in couples. Goodness me. Times have changed. It is, it's it's a it's a it's a time capsule film, it really is. The economy is so different now, and so I found that kind of I mean it's interesting, but it does feel like a time piece in that sense, a period piece.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

I thought I thought the dynamic of the meal went well where they're all talking, yeah, and the conversation, and they find out uh he's cooked guinea fowl and he's a vegetarian, and then they have this talk about the last brownie and who deserves it the most.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

I thought that was quite good.

SPEAKER_03 31:20

Yeah, and it does it that is a better way of explaining all the character situations rather than wildering a voiceover telling us, you know what I mean? That the debate No, but it is the discussion about how who can have the last brownie where they all say their sort of sob stories, is actually a good way to show us some character exposition without it being boring. What I was gonna say about Gina McKee's character, a positive I think it's a positive thing, although I'm not the right person to say it because I don't use a wheelchair. It seemed to me, with four weddings and a funeral, I don't know if you remember um Hugh Grant's brother in it, David, I think his name is dead. He was hearing impaired, yeah. And he there was so the character signed. And in this film, five years later, uh Gina McKee's character is in a wheelchair, and it's not really part of the plot at all. I mean, at one point towards the end she kind of uses uses it as a kind of way to get into a thing, but it's not part of the plot, and David's um uh hearing impairedness in four weddings wasn't part of the plot, it kind of got used a bit when he got to sign what to his to um Hugh Grant on the altar when he didn't want to get married at the end to tell him, you know, so you could kind of use it, but it wasn't it didn't need to be. So I suppose it's what I'm saying is I think it's good that Richard Curtis would always include people with various different abilities in his films, certainly at a time when that wasn't happening, yeah. It felt like that was a good thing, and it was inclusive representation, it wasn't like representation because we need you to be disabled in this piece. I just obviously now I think the Gina McKee character would be played by someone who actually was an actor who used a wheelchair rather than her, but she's yeah, she's fine.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

So then the scene ends, and they walk back and she says, What do you think's over this wall? and he tries to climb over it and starts saying whoopsie daisy and she starts laughing at him, uh huh. And then she climbs over it very easy when he was struggling.

SPEAKER_03 33:16

Yeah, you've made you've moved on uh very quickly. Well, it's a can we talk about Emma Chambers? Okay, who plays his sister?

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

She's Fab.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

She's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Um I miss her because she didn't get to do enough. Um it was nice to see her again.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

Interestingly, um the Lady Woman girl, the lady woman. The Lady Woman part. The Lady Woman Is this a podcast about Huffuzz? Um the the woman he worked with in For Wednesday Fuel died through Charlotte Coleman. Asthma-related problems, and did Emma Chambers also die through something similar?

SPEAKER_03 34:02

I don't know, they both died too young. Yeah, yeah. Linked to that actually, this is just trivia. I was reading how so Charlotte Coleman, her mum is an actress. I think she might have died by now as well, I don't know. She was in Fresh Fields. Do you ever watch Fresh Fields? No, no of it, but she played the the annoying neighbour Sonia, who literally would walk in mid-sene and go me Sonia! And she was very funny. When I was a kid, she was very funny. So that anyway, she's the mum of Charlotte Coleman. Um, and when I was reading stuff about Notting Hill yesterday, in order to do this, um there was a scene there's been scenes cut where Will's mum is constantly ringing, and this the woman who plays Sonia Ann Beach was playing Will's mum.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

So she was um involved with this film, even though she was, you know, we didn't actually end up seeing her. And her daughter was in for weddings.

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Very briefly in the end. Do you the wedding?

SPEAKER_03 34:52

Oh well that was her. She had other scenes when she was on the answer phone, you say. Oh, we jumped ahead there. Sorry. Right. I wonder what will happen at the end.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Spoilers. Um so they jump over this wall. Yes, they get into this garden, and then they kiss. They do, and this garden's beautiful, it's it's night, but you see a lot of space.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

It's a private garden they're broken in, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Yeah. Then she sits on the bench, he walks away, it goes to an aerial shot, and he he kind of walks away and then sits down the bench but doesn't sit next to her on the bench. I noticed.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

There's a bit of a gap between them, just just something that stands.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

Well, when they walk before they've gone into this garden, they're walking out of the um house, and I do find it the really here's a realistic bit, you know, when like they walk out and then the door shuts and everyone just then pisses themselves because like, oh my god, that felt very scream. Yeah, that felt believable. The giddiness of when they're like, you know, Emma Chambers is like oversharing and trying to follow her into the loom. Yeah, that all felt very believable to me. I was I was on board with all that. Like I say, the friends stuff I was fine with. Anyway, as they walk out and they're walking down the road, he says something about if you want to, I my house is just wherever. And she goes, No, too complicated, right? Which is fine. Yeah, but then they kind of break into a garden and snog, and I'm like, what's okay, what's why is this less complicated? Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Spike.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

Well, maybe it was purely your gross flatmates.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Uh so they go on another date, which I presume is the next day, they go to the cinema.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:24

Um obviously the swimming goggles gag has finally shown.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

My sides are splitting. At this point around this, I think it might have been when they're in the garden, to be fair. Boy Zone kicks in when you say nothing of it.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

It's not Boy Zone, it's Ronan Keaton. When you say nothing.

SPEAKER_03 36:44

So sorry. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

Which is multiple times without the movie.

SPEAKER_03 36:47

Yeah, it is, and it does that was a proper, like, oh god, like right back to that time period. Do you know what I mean? It was a good song at the time. It's well, not slagging it off, but it does feel like oh yeah, that was then.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

Yeah, that's a thing. So after the cinema, they go to the restaurant, yes, and they're having a lovely meal, and they overhear people talking about Anna Scott.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

A young Sanjeev Baskar and a young Paul Chaheidi, and there's a third guy, and I didn't know who he was, I didn't recognise him.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

Is he about four or five of them?

SPEAKER_03 37:17

Yes, but we Sanjeev is on like as you he's on the left, sort of facing the t the end of the table. And then we had the back of Paul Chaheidi, who we see when the camera goes around the other side when she comes over, and then the other guy that was talking, I didn't know him. But there's a table full of city wanker blokes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

I would think that they look like they work in the stock market. Oh yeah, yeah. That's kind of what that sort of image they were going for.

SPEAKER_03 37:43

Also hugely stereotypical. Yeah. No nuance with this.

SPEAKER_00 37:46

They're all they're all talking about Anna Scott and basically saying she's like a prostitute and the way she looks on the screen and all that.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

They're just vile.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

And it it basically will's not happy. So he gets up and says, Look, this person's got real feelings and it's a real person, blah blah blah, and they all just start laughing at him, so he walks away. Him and Anna are about to leave the restaurant and she goes, fuck it. And goes goes and confronts them. And she says, I hope all your balls are the size of peanut butter.

SPEAKER_03 38:16

No peanuts. They've got dicks the size of peanuts or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Yeah, something along those lines.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

The tune is great.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Yeah. She then he walks her back to the writs, she then invites him up to her room.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

So I'm gonna jump in before we get to this next scene. It's you can say that these guys are it's okay that they're broad stereotypes because they are just summing up a whole, you know, bunch of knobeds that she probably has to deal with all the time. But for me, the stuff they're saying is objectifying women negatively. I would say Richard Curtis objectifies women positively, as in he's not slagging them off, but he does still objectify them. They're all on pedestals, no one is two dimensions, no one's more than two-dimensional. They are goddesses or kooky or ditzy or that you know, they're all stereotypes, yeah. And so, you know, these guys obviously are saying horrible vile things, and it's nice.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

Yeah, they are.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

Oh, they are, but yeah, I just find I just find it all too lacking nuance. And I think for me, comedy is a nuance, and there's not enough nuance in this film. I'd like to think it would be made completely differently now, but yeah, it's fascinating watching it back in 2026.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Fair play.

SPEAKER_03 39:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

So she asks him to wait a couple of minutes before she comes up to the room. He comes up and knocks on the door and kisses it, and she's got a shocked look on her face. Her boyfriend from out of town.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

The legendary Alec Baldwin has turned out. Legendary wasn't the time.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

Well, yeah, he was a big name at the time. Well, he's still a big name, but I don't think he'd have been hired for this gig in these days.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

Yeah, I think he'd be not considered. But it's literally 30 seconds and he's gone.

SPEAKER_03 40:11

Yeah, he's not got much to do.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Um, you know, we we we see the look of shock on Will's face. Anna's really disappointed that her boyfriend's there. The boyfriend asks him, he thinks he's like a room service. Room service asks him to add the ostriches.

SPEAKER_03 40:29

Yeah. And that it's why is the why are you grinning at that?

SPEAKER_00 40:33

It's just the shock that it happened, because you're thinking this romance is gonna blossom and then there's a spanner in the works.

SPEAKER_03 40:40

Hmm. Yeah. So uh do you know about how Richard Curtis has someone called Bernie in every film?

SPEAKER_00 40:47

No.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

Okay. So I'm paraphrasing slightly, but I hear about this all the time. Richard Curtis was going out with someone years ago and she left him for somebody called Bernie or Bernard. So ever since then, in every film, he has put a character called Bernie or Bernard in it. Makes me laugh because I have a relative who has that same name.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

Right.

SPEAKER_03 41:05

Um, but so in this, Hugh Barneville's character is called Bernie, and when um I think Alex Start again. I think Alec Baldwin says, um, what's your name? Or set asks him his name or something, he says Bernie. It's actually quite funny, guys, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 41:22

Bernie.

SPEAKER_03 41:23

So, but that's the Hugh Barneville character's name in this, but it is also the standard Bernie from every, you know, every film he's done.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

So he carries on with his life. He goes to the cinema to watch a new film with his proper glasses this time, and it's a space film.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Spike tries to talk to him about it, and he mentions that's a girl.

SPEAKER_03 41:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

And he goes, Oh, I knew it was. Instead of a woman. Um hang on. Spike asks him about it and he said it's about a girl. Spike goes, I knew it was. He says it's like I've opened love heroin and I can't get off it. It's like I've opened Pandora's box. To which Spike goes, I knew a girl called Pandora. I've never seen her box.

SPEAKER_03 42:07

Yeah, it's hysterical. Um at this point, and it is at this point in my notes, I realised that I have a character in my book series called Spike. And it's not from this film. I can tell you that. The reason I called my it's the younger brother of my main character. The reason I called him Spike was because I decided that the parents would have called, or the mum would have called her child Spike after Spike from Press Gang, who was played by Dexter Fletcher. A much better Spike, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

So he walks down the street, and as he's walking down the street, you can see in the background there's newspaper headlines featuring Anna Scott.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

Yeah. Basically red tops, the tabloids.

SPEAKER_00 42:49

Yeah, all all the the daily trash. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and there's been a leak of some old photos of Anna Scott, which I presume are topless photos, because they would be in the papers.

SPEAKER_03 43:01

Yeah, and this also felt very realistic to be fair. I mean, this is the 90s, and this is still going on. Phone hacking scandals and people getting paparazzi all the time and all that the sun.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

The Sunday papers were the ones who tried to do all this, wasn't it? They they build up the stories and like the news of the world and exposed stuff. But it'd be when they say exposed stuff, it'd be not sort of um great grandeur, it'd be just about celebrities and their their love triangles or naked pictures and things.

SPEAKER_03 43:31

So we know we now know a lot more about this period of time in tabloid journalism and the way we get story they got stories, but she basically just says she thinks she posed for these topless photos when she was young and someone must have sold them, which is sort of you know not criminal, it's just really shit. Whereas we now know a lot more about how the tabloids are operating because of you know the and what ties this in really well is Hugh Grant's big advocate of the campaign, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:59

Yeah, Hugh.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

There's a bit uh later on where he's actually saying something just tomorrow's waste paper basket. You know, he's being really naive about it, and she's just quite rightly really fuming with him for being naive. And it was funny to see Hugh Grant play somewhat naive about the power of this when we know Hugh Grant is actually brilliant at standing up for victims of the phone hacking scandal.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

So there's a knock at the door.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

It's Anna Scott, and she's upset, and she said, I didn't know where to go, and I thought this would be a good place to hide out.

unknown 44:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Well, it's like, come in, come in, come in. And they have a bit of a conversation about hey boyfriend, and he says, No, every day you get to add the ostes of a famous movie star. Okay. And they then start talking, and she says she's here for the new film. And he says, Well, maybe I can help you with the script.

SPEAKER_03 44:53

Yeah. They also have a bit of chat, which is a a thing to set up for later, about the Chigal pin painting that uh Hugh's got a print of in his Yeah, I can't believe you got that picture. We should mention it because it does come back later.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

Well, he he helps her with reading through the script and she says, What do you think of it? He goes, It's no Jane Austen though.

SPEAKER_03 45:13

No, Henry James.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

No Jane Austen or no Henry James. Okay. He does mention Jane Austen as well. And so Will runs in a bath.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

Alright. To calm her down. And Spike enters the house with the newspaper.

SPEAKER_03 45:32

Looking at the friggin' nudes, because he's gross.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

Yeah. Heads straight up to the bathroom. We kind of see him about to un He's about to have a piss. Is he? Yeah. He's got the newspaper with nudes. Oh gross. Yeah. Oh, oh, I thought you were he was gonna have a shit. No.

SPEAKER_02 45:50

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

And then you hear the voice, you must be spike. And he turns around and he sees Anna in the bath.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

Yeah, so again, she would not be happy if someone walks in while she's having a bath.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

100%.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

After this whole like, you know, imp improv after this whole invasion of privacy she's just experienced.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

He then pops his head back in and went, just checking, and then closes the door and then puts his hands together and goes, Thank you God, thank you God.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

Yeah, h horrible, horrible guy. And the other thing that I can't I can't stance like, I just find that I think he was supposed to be comedic, but now I find him just too gross to even contemplate. Because there's that, but then later on, be well in this scene, um it he's saying to Will, she's just split with a boyfriend. Basically, she's vulnerable, so you should shagger. Like, what?

SPEAKER_00 46:39

But there is people like that that do exist.

SPEAKER_03 46:41

Well, that doesn't mean that I want to see them as in films that are supposed to be light-hearted rom-coms.

SPEAKER_00 46:45

I know, but what it's shown is Will's character is good character where there's Is it because he does shagger that night? Ah no, but she comes down to him.

SPEAKER_03 46:54

It doesn't matter, she's vulnerable and she came to him for a safe space. Honestly, it's it doesn't read as well as it used to, that's all I'll say.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

Yeah, so so he comes down, Spike, and he goes, you know, you are good friends, you get on, maybe it's time to slip a one. But then she comes down, he thinks it's Spike, and he goes, Oh, for God's sake, and she goes, Well, and then gets and he goes, No, no, no, come back, come back, come back, and then they kiss and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 47:20

So, well, let's not make sweet love, let's not gloss over this because this I think is the epitome of my issue with these characters. You see them, it's sort of dark, it's kind of you know romantically lit, um, and they're both standing up and they start to kiss, and then the implication is they then go on and have sex. But the start of it is he's kind of he basically undresses her. He pulls off her top, you see her bare shoulders, he's still fully clothed, he undresses her top to move it down her back, and the way he kisses her neck, it's like she is a Greek marble statue, so beautiful, something to be adored, something to be kind of viewed. And he is in a t-shirt and PJs or whatever he's wearing, you know, it's not about him. And I this is the epitome of how Richard Curtis's female characters are treated, the love interests certainly. Some of them are just like the hags, you know, or the kooky crazies like Eva Chambers' character. But the the female sort of romantic leads in these films are treated as though they are porcelain, and I stru I I just the way Hugh Grant kind of kissed her neck, it should be sexy. It didn't seem sexy to me. She was vulnerable, she went in for a safe space. I get that she approached him, I get that. So, you know.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

And it had been building off, you know, right throughout the movie to this point, it had been building off where they were.

SPEAKER_03 48:42

Yeah, they've had a mutual attraction. But that for her to have gone there when this massive invasion of privacy has happened, and for her A to not be asked when Spike sees her in the bath, and B to just be undressed by fully clothed Hugh Grant, it's not how I would direct that scene or write that scene. These days it feels too, I don't know, like you're taking advantage of money that's going to be.

SPEAKER_00 49:03

Looking at it in modern eyes, yeah, I get that, but it was a perfectly nice scene at the time.

SPEAKER_03 49:09

At the time it didn't bother me, and I probably thought it was cute.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

Romantic. They make sweet love. So the next day, she wakes up and she talks about Rita Hayworth. And she says they go to bed with Gilda and wake up with me.

SPEAKER_03 49:29

I read that Julie Roberts hated that line. Alright. Yeah, just thought it wouldn't it wasn't something that the character would say.

SPEAKER_00 49:35

But he said, You look more beautiful now than you ever have.

SPEAKER_03 49:38

He's just yeah, it's a it's a it's a fantasy.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

He's such a romantic.

SPEAKER_03 49:42

It's just a fantasy, it's a male fantasy. He doesn't know her. He doesn't know her. You look more beautiful than you've ever looked. Well, you've literally known her for five minutes. What? Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 49:52

So they decide to have some breakfast, and then there is a knock at the door. Oh no, the doorbell goes and Will goes to answer the door, and the paps arrived.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

It's like every single pap in the whole of the UK uh arrive at this blue door. Yeah. And so this is a bit where I will criticise the movie. I don't understand why he doesn't tell her what's outside.

SPEAKER_03 50:17

I've seen uh Hugh Grant's like the film off of this. Yeah. Like, what on earth was his character doing here? He's just weak.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Yeah, yeah. He's obviously garbage macros. So she opens the door to have a look what's outside, yeah. And they pap her, he's in his underwear, and she's just in a long shirt.

SPEAKER_02 50:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:32

So she flies off the handle.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

Yeah, quite rightly.

SPEAKER_00 50:36

Um basically calls her agent, and next thing she's whisked off by a chauffeur.

SPEAKER_03 50:42

If I was going to overthink this in a way that Richard Curtis clearly never did, um I might suggest that this his his whole fantasy, this male dream come true, where this guy who's divorced and had his heart broken and blah de blah gets to shag this sort of sexy, beautiful everyone loves her Anna Scott. Um and he sort of keeps it to himself with James Dreyfus and he doesn't talk to Spike about it initially. Maybe on a subconscious level, Will wants the world to know. You know, this would be how I would maybe overthink it if I was putting actual thought into this script.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

But then it turns out I don't think that's how it probably No, it turns out because Spike says he told a few mates down the pub.

SPEAKER_03 51:22

Yeah, but that's why he didn't stop her to go to the door, because actually, oh, oh, yeah, I'm not again this is a subconscious reading as opposed to what we're actually given. But yeah, I don't think anyone put that much thought into it. I do find it funny how I've seen Hugh Grant slag him off here. I go, What on earth has he done that? That's ridiculous, that should never have happened. He's just a he's weak and he's treats her terribly. Which I kind of like him now, you know, when he goes back and does like retrospectives over his career. Which I watch those quite often because I do like his take on a lot of these.

SPEAKER_00 51:51

So then cuts the song Ain't No Sunshine.

SPEAKER_03 51:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 51:55

And we get the four seasons scene. I absolutely love this scene, how it was done. Yeah. He's walking so I'm presuming a full year's past because showing all four seasons. Four seasons, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Walking through Portobello Market. Yep. Um, and you see his sister meet a boy.

SPEAKER_03 52:12

Um could be s a man.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

I'm I'm talking in Richard Curtis in Richard Curtis lingo. She took him for ice cream after school. She meets a boy at the beginning of the montage, yeah, and at the end they break up and she's upset.

SPEAKER_03 52:26

Yeah. Or equally unlucky in love.

SPEAKER_00 52:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:28

That's her brother.

SPEAKER_00 52:30

So his sister then comes into his shop saying she's got the number of Anna Scott's agent, and he drops it in the bin.

SPEAKER_03 52:37

And my question is, how has she got the number of Anna Scott's agent? Do you know what I mean? How does this happen? How?

SPEAKER_00 52:43

No idea. Okay, just saying these are things that's what's happened in Posh England, because we're not Posh England. We don't know how these circles.

SPEAKER_03 52:50

I just I just find it, you know, well, I don't know. It could have been one line to say, well, hairdresser's best friend's daughter's next door neighbour said. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 52:59

Yeah, fair play, fair play.

SPEAKER_03 53:00

And that must be vaguely amusing to do it that way, but no, she just has a number on a piece of paper.

SPEAKER_00 53:04

So he then tells his friend that he's over at a scott, and one of them says, You do know she's in town filming her new movie.

SPEAKER_03 53:11

This is at the second dinner party we see, which is at the friend's restaurant. Again, I didn't have a problem with these group scenes. I don't buy into all of the things that I'm supposed to buy into, but seeing mates sit around taking the piss out of each other, I think, is always even if they're nothing like me, you know. So he goes to see her on We've got to point I've got to point out the thing about that. There's one thing that happens at the dinner party, which I don't get. I don't get it. And it's not that I don't find it funny, because I don't think it's meant to be funny. It makes no sense to the plot, I don't think. Randomly, Emma Chambers' character I don't know her name, sorry, announces that she's got engaged.

SPEAKER_01 53:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:56

And then quietly says to Spike, it's to you. What? What's that about? I have no idea. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 54:04

And he just agrees to it.

SPEAKER_03 54:05

And it's like, oh, are we supposed to have been rooting for Spike to have a happy ending? Is that the point? So he's met someone's sister to have the happy ending. Or the sister, okay. I mean, I don't believe that Richard Curtis cares too much about the women, you know what I mean? I think he would care more about Spike at this point. The fact he's even in the film, I don't get it. But it just doesn't make any sense.

SPEAKER_00 54:25

I so I would suggest maybe the stuff that's ended up on the cutting room floor that we haven't seen.

SPEAKER_03 54:31

Possibly.

SPEAKER_00 54:32

That that because it's so random, wasn't it? It is, you know, maybe just you know, to fit it into a certain time frame because it is two hours and four minutes long, this movie, and the this was of a time where they wanted multiple showings throughout the day, so add another 15 minutes.

SPEAKER_03 54:49

There's no reason for it to get any longer, no.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

Yeah, so so maybe something ended up on a cutting room floor.

SPEAKER_03 54:55

Yeah, maybe. Because it just I I don't get it, but yeah, okay. I'm glad that we you agree with me.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

Yeah, so he go he goes to see her in her movie because he's on the set on hamster teeth and finds out it's a Henry James movie. Yeah. Now the score kicks in here, and the score's amazing on this film. Okay. Really?

SPEAKER_03 55:14

Yes, I agree, I just can't remember what it was at this point.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

Um she says, Can you stay? Because there's some things to say. Yes. So he says he agrees, and then she has to go off, and they give him a headset.

SPEAKER_02 55:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

And he can hear her dialogue. Yes. And they're basically slagging off some woman, and then he goes, Who's that man you the the side actor says?

SPEAKER_02 55:40

It's Sam West, it's the actor who's playing the actor.

SPEAKER_00 55:43

Yeah, and he says, Who's that man of senior? And she goes, Oh, it's nothing, it's it's a bit awkward, and dismisses him out of hand.

SPEAKER_01 55:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:51

So Will takes off the headset and walks away.

SPEAKER_03 55:57

I've got stuff to say. What I was gonna say, and it comes up with something earlier as well, it's another Richard Curtis trope that I don't think has aged well and which I can't bear. It is there's a lot of fat shaming.

SPEAKER_00 56:11

Yeah, that doesn't age well at all.

SPEAKER_03 56:14

We we see this in love actually with the Martina McCutcheon character who apparently has chubby thighs that everyone comments on, which is nonsense. But um Sam West, who is the real actor playing the part of the actor, he's sagging off someone's ass. Yeah, like, oh, she's got more yeah, she could give that to all the skinny people and have what I can't remember. I'm not even gonna requote it. The other bit is um the other bit is at the dinner party, um Hugh Bonneville uh was told he's got fat, or you know, Emma Chambers says he makes a self-deprecating comment, and then Emma Emma Chambers says, Yeah, but you know you've gone fat or whatever. It just feels so it feels so dated, yeah, it really does. And I don't think that does aged well at all because it's just yeah, so shallow pathetic.

SPEAKER_00 57:03

So I presume either later that afternoon or the next day, she turns up in a shop.

SPEAKER_03 57:09

She does, and she's now won an Oscar. The character Julia Roberts hadn't won an Oscar at this point, but uh Anna Scott has.

SPEAKER_00 57:17

And she's got a present for him. Yeah. And she asks if he basically was gonna.

SPEAKER_03 57:27

Yes. I don't understand why.

SPEAKER_00 57:32

And he says, but yesterday I heard you dismiss me to that guy, and she says he's he's the biggest gossip in the year. Why would I talk to him to him about you?

SPEAKER_02 57:42

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 57:46

She says she's behaved very badly, and the thing is if it didn't go away, could we see each other a little?

SPEAKER_03 57:55

I don't think she has behaved badly at any point, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 58:00

Well, I think she told them about a boyfriend.

SPEAKER_03 58:02

Why she she's met this guy for like five minutes.

SPEAKER_00 58:05

It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 58:06

Okay. The my other issue with Richard Curtis' films is that the men uh always fall in love after like a minute. Do you know what I mean? They've found true love, she's a goddess, uh this is it, this is all I want, and and then they have to sort of deal with the repercussions of that, and obviously we've seen Hugh Grant look sad as the year has passed as he's walked down the road. Um, so there's some sort of idea that now that he's he's sort of almost got over his broken heart, so he doesn't want to risk it again, which is what comes in.

SPEAKER_00 58:31

So basically he says he doesn't think his heart could take it anymore.

SPEAKER_03 58:34

But my point is you met her for five minutes, you had one shag, uh you treated like a goddess, you don't know her, you don't know anything about this woman other than like she's a big star, but you don't know her because you've what spent two days, two dates? I don't know. It's his own fault for falling in love with someone on physical appearances.

SPEAKER_00 58:53

But she says she's just a girl standing in front of a boy asking her to look.

SPEAKER_03 58:59

That's been quoted so much though, hasn't it? That's I absolutely love that line. She's just a woman standing in front of a man. True though. Stop infantilising yourself.

SPEAKER_00 59:11

I don't care. I don't care. I love this line. When I first heard this line, yes, I know it's cheesy. It's definitely being overquoted. It's been way overquoted. I quote it all the time. You've overquoted it. I'm just a girl. Um I absolutely love the line. I don't get like alright, for Wednesday funeral, is it raining? I didn't know it's ridiculous. Get cringe, right? But the fact that it's Julia Roberts delivering this line, it just works for me.

SPEAKER_03 59:39

I mean Andy Middle can deliver a line. But she doesn't deliver a line. I don't feel like the line was wrong, but you know.

SPEAKER_00 59:45

So I love that. Um so obviously she goes, he looks at what leaves the present. Present, and it is the original painting of the post that he's got. Yeah, nonsense. He tells his friends, and they're all going, good decision, good decision. Yeah. To basically make him feel good.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:03

And then Spike comes in and he goes, What's going on? He says, Oh, Will's just turned on Anna Scott. He goes, Oh, you daft prick.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:10

And he goes, I've made the wrong decision, haven't I?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:14

And then you all agree. So mad dash across London.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:19

It's full steam ahead, is all right.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:21

Yeah. Um, and everyone's trying to give him directions. And he goes, James Wonders not to put up with this shit. Yeah. And that so they eventually get to the hotel.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:30

They go to the Ritz, first of all.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:31

Yep, not there.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:32

Nope. The concierge does contravene GDPR, not that it existed then by saying uh Miss Pocahontas went to the Savoy or whatever he says.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:41

Yeah, for the press conference. But I'm sure for saying that it's been over a year. I was gonna say you might have recognised them from being in there, but it's been over a year, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:50

And that's not how security in the hotel works.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:53

So so and so they get to the Savoy and Will's trying to get to the press conference. Now, this is the time capture bit now.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:01

He shows his press pass and she goes, and the guy goes, It's a blockbuster video card. Yeah, yeah. I mean, a lot of people who listen to this podcast, if anyone actually listens to the podcast, will go, What's blockbuster?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:12

Well, I used to have a blockbuster card, you know, I was a member.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:16

But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:16

Um and then Gina This is where Gina McKee potentially this. I mean, look, if Richard Curtis has written this character to have a wheelchair in order for this bit to work, that is ridiculous, okay. However, I don't think, I don't think that would be the case.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:36

He didn't think he just wrote it as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:37

I think uh yeah, because there's so much inclusion again, not how it would be now, but for the 90s inclusion, representation, you know, we see her kind of in her home, we see her living her life, we see her talking about the sort of the And the relationship with her and the husband is really nice about kind of they're the ones that are truly happy as opposed to everyone else who's struggling with like different things. Yeah, um, but oh yeah, so I'm just gonna hope that this just happened to be a happy accident that she could say, I'm doing a a a report on uh disabled access in London hotels, and that gets them in. Yeah, but whatever, we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:09

And then so he manages to get into the press conference and miraculously gets into the middle of the huddle. Absolutely. I mean that would never ever happen. No. And Anna's asked a question of how long you're staying in England. England, and she says, I'm leaving leaving straight after this. So somebody asks a question about the pictures, and says, Oh, he's he's a friend, I hope he is still a friend.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:36

Oh, the yeah, the paparazzi stuff, sorry, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:39

And then Will Will puts his hand up and he asks Anna about if circumstances were to change and that guy, and somebody shouts, I think his name's Thacker. And he goes, Yeah, yeah, Thacker. If Mr. Thacker had realised he'd been a daft prick, would you reconsider? And she says, I believe I would. And then she gets her agent to ask the guy to re-ask the question, How long are you gonna be staying in England for? She says, indefinitely. Cue the music.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:09

I swear to god, your friggin' face, it's like the cheesiest grin.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:13

Oh my god. And then she comes on the Elvis Costello, the Elvis Costello version comes on, yeah. Yeah, and then we get a montage there, and she's she's beaming as much as I am right now. Oh my god. And you see him at movie premiers, and this is where, like, obviously, Hugh Grant's a great actor, but he looks really nervous in the premieres, and it ends up where they are in that private garden, there's Tai Chi going on, yeah, and she's lying on the bench, he's reading the book, and she's pregnant. Gross.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:46

This is a Richard Curtis classic ending. It happens in four weddings, it happens in yesterday, it happens in this, it probably happens in others, where after the two people get together, there's then a montage at the end where it basically gives you the next few years of their life, and there's always a wedding, and there's always bloody kids. Yeah. Andy McDowell, Hugh Grant, little toddler in front of them on a photo snapshot on the end of four weddings, and then in yesterday it's Lily James and Himish Patel who kind of you see them together, and then you see them with a couple of kids again, sort of freeze-frame, snapshotty style, futuristic things. And here, Julia Roberts knocked up. She's a successful actress. I know she probably wanted to step back, and you can argue all those things, but it's just like a classic. This is Richard Curtis's idea of what a happy ending for a relationship is, is where someone, uh a guy, has married married this woman who is a goddess and is now pregnant slash a mother.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:40

No, but maybe she's content and that's what her happy ending is.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:44

Maybe me as a viewer is utterly disappointed that not that doesn't just happen once when you can think, okay, that was right for those people, it happens every time. So it's shorthand and it's lays.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:54

But the other thing with this is like I say, this is based on a bit of a true story, so maybe I don't care.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:01

He asked and I don't care. Yeah. I feel like narratively, it's not like if it was one film he'd done this in, you could argue okay, fine, that's what we you wanted to happen for that couple. It's every film.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:14

So this was the second film headed in. It's the second film he's done in.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:17

He definitely did it in yesterday, and I can't remember. There'll be other ones in between as well. I'm trying to think of other films. What about about time? I only watched that once.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:25

I've only seen that the once. That's my least favourite Richard Case.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:28

I remember it being very sad.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:30

Yeah. So I like that. I love Four Weddings. Wasn't Mastery Noward to the uh the boat that rocked.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:37

No, I hated that. Yeah. Full of sexist men. Again, it was all just about blokes getting laid.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:41

The women were irrelevant. Wasn't wasn't fussed on that. Love actually amazing. This is amazing.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:49

I've fallen out of love with love actually over the years as well. I loved it at the time, but now it's just showing for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:55

They're just warm, cozy films.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:57

And like it's doesn't it doesn't hit the same Feel the woman watching it? Because the women don't get treated well, they get treated like really superficially.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:07

Well, fair fair play, but I really enjoy the film. I think these are men's films because the male characters really we always see it through their maybe that's why I like this so much, because maybe it is a man's slant on a romantic comedy.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:21

You can imagine that who's a big hot movie star of these days? I don't even know. You can imagine you're just walking around doing your job. Scarlett Johansson. Scarlett Johansson. Oh, because she does Marvel stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:31

Well, she's the highest paid actress in the world.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:34

Fine. Well, again, you've got to fact-check this. I have no idea if that's true. But it's true. Okay, but again, I don't believe you until I fact-check that. So I'll just we'll have my little holding bubble. We'll we'll wait. But yeah, it's it's a male fantasy. This is a male fantasy, and there's nothing wrong with that, particularly. You know, films are for different people, written by different people. But it's why I don't engage with it, I think. Why I struggle to engage with it. Because who am I wanting who do I aspire to be in this film? None of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:01

None of them I get that from a female perspective, like where I would like to be will. You could be his sister. Oh Christ.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:09

It went up with bloody spike, no thanks.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:13

Do you learn or Gina McKay in the wheelchair?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:15

Yeah, she's she's successful, she's happily married, you know. She she wants a baby, can't have one. She's had some like life-altering accident. I think she had an accident some some years before. That was the story. She fell down the stairs. Yeah, I think you said something out slipping. I don't know. But yeah, yeah. Um anyway, anyway. So, do you want to know what I think?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:36

I've got already what you think.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:40

I have thoughts. I've got all my notes about the plot, and then I've got my thoughts. And I may have actually already said a lot of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:47

I think you probably have.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:49

So, I'll just briefly. Okay, I do think spoiled my life, but no, do you know what? Richard Curtis has done amazing things with Comet Relief. Good, good for him. Brilliant. I'm glad the world I'm glad he's in the world and he's done amazing things. And I've also very much enjoyed lots of his films when I watched them when they came out. I just don't think they age well. I think that's the issue with this. It was like a time capsule. The music particularly was a lovely reminder of that time. Um, yeah, all the boys own stuff. And Elvis Costello, it reminded me that um I'm not sure which version, but the the song She was the first dancer, like my best mate's wedding, which I think was 2003. My friend Claire. What's that?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:33

They obviously love this movie.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:35

I think they do, and I'm aware that people do. And even when I watched this the first time, like I say, I went to the next time I went to London after that, I made I'm sort of made an effort to go to get off the tube in Nottinghill or wherever Notting Hill Gate, wherever it was. Remember being a bit of a walk. The other thing to say is my auntie actually lives not far from Portobello Road now. Um it's different. Uh it's a kind of strange place because she's sort of nearer Grenfell, which is sort of a very different place. Um, so a few a few roads one way is Grenfell, and a few roads the other way is Portobello Road. Um, but I do visit a couple of times a year, you know, to that area, so I do I sort of know it a bit more than I ever did. Yeah, these these films, to me, they're all just a bit too earnest and naff about the search for true love. I know they're rom-comps, and that's the point. I didn't think it was as funny as it once was to me now. I guess as well, there's the element of a bit like a Fish Call Wonder where you saw a London presented that is almost like to sort of um appeal to people who don't know what it's really like. You know, a Fishco Wonder had Big Ben and has the Parliament and all that.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:41

Yeah, so this film obviously was made for an American audience as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:46

As well, yeah. It's the it's the whole, it's the street markets, it's the red double decker bus.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:50

Hugh Grant, um just sort of, you know, because they don't have the the backs that the, you know, where people get off at the back anymore where there's like the kind of you can hold on with it, yeah, that's made me laugh. Again, time capsule. The other thing it's fair to say, I mentioned before about you know a very different economy back then where all these people can afford to live these places. Also, London is like a diverse and vibrant city. We'll know it from this film particularly.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:13

Well, that's an issue. We've talked about this before, I think. Um maybe off camera. Um we've talked about this before, maybe off podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:24

About Richard Cater's movies being predominantly white.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:27

Everyone's white, bloody hell.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:29

Yeah, so there is an issue with that.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:30

It does seem like, again, time capture, but even in 1999, that that wasn't accurate. Um, I do love Hugh Grant, but what I love about him now, I've s there's loads of these sorts of videos on YouTube. You'll see him sort of talking through his top 20 roles, and he'll sit there and you'll kind of he'll go through different things. And I do like how he just takes the piss out of himself, how he played the same character all through, you know, 10-year period or whatever. And I think his best work, uh he does it really well, and I really enjoy it, but his best work I think is when he decided to just sod that and do different things. So he was really good in the Jeremy Thorpe thing when he played Jeremy Thorpe. Is it a very English scandal or a very British scandal? One of them. Um Paddington 2, Phoenix Buchanan. Bout a boy. Amazing. Bouter Boy, I don't mind it. I think yeah, again, not written by Richard Curtis, which helps. Um, yeah, much better. And I don't even mind him nor the Bridget Jones stuff where he's just playing these awful sleazy, sleazy Daniel Cleaver.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:29

See, I I get the same warm feeling off watching Bridget Jones as I do watching.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:34

Oh, I don't, you see, nah. Yeah, no, anyway, um, but I much prefer his later roles, his roles in the last sort of decade or so. Just yeah, I find him great as an unpleumper. Yeah, honestly, yeah. I like where he doesn't take himself so seriously and he just goes for it and he he he acts he he acts out of type from these sort of I don't know, gum floppy haired fumble people.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:58

Suggest like this 10-year period basically bankrolled them to be able to do the future roles of whatever he wanted.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:06

I I don't know. I I I think I've seen him talk about how he just didn't he was sort of scared to do different, but it doesn't matter because yeah, he does really well, he does a great thing in this. Julie Roberts equally brilliant actress. I buy into the fact that she's this Anna Scott actress.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:21

Well she is that in real life, isn't she?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:23

Well, I just think she's let down by the fact there's no personality been written for her in this. Um yeah, that's kind of where I'm up to. Let me just see if there's anything else I wanted to say. Yeah, so okay. I suppose my underlying thesis about the fact I don't buy these two getting together because you don't spend any time together, really. If Anna Scott, looking like she looks, w worked in a shop, or you know, did I don't know what other jobs do people have? I got was a teacher, right? And then she walks into the travel book shop and everything else happens exactly the same. You know, she sort of talks to him about the Turkish book and she buys it and she writes, she wouldn't have to give her an autograph, I guess, if she was a teacher, but you know, she says to the guy you should be in jail, and then these he spills orange juice on a top. All that exactly the same. But she works in a shop, or she's a teacher, or she's anything else. I don't believe for a second that Hugh Grant's character, Will, would fall in love with her. You might think she's fit, she might you might think, Oh, that's quite an attractive woman walked in today, but at no point would he kind of be this star-struck or in-aw guy who then makes it his mission to kind of want her. Because it's not about who she is, it's just about this aura that has been given to her by the fact she's supposed to be a movie star. And I think when you put it into that context, that's why I don't buy their relationship. I don't buy that she kissed him, like I said. I don't buy that she'd say come to the writs when she's literally met him for a minute and you know he just garbled at her. I don't buy any of that, but even if it did, I don't think any of that would have happened if she had a job that wasn't movie star.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:00

But she is a movie star. Oh god's sake. That's the that's the whole premise of the movie. It is. Is she the most famous person on the planet at that point?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:10

Yes, because we're told that at the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:13

In that amazing monologue.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:16

Do you want to hear what some other people think?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:19

They better think the same as me. Do you know what?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:21

There was a lot of positivity out there. Thank God. Struggle to find. Well, I didn't search too far to be fair. Um, there was a really some of these pieces are funny, and you should read them. I know you won't, but I'll link them all in the show notes. There's a piece by Yasmin Omar called The Very Specific Appeal of Hugh Grant's Romantic Declarations. It breaks down all of these like rom coms basically that he's but he took this she starts off talking about how he starts off with Four Weddings and Funeral doing the bumbling, stuttering, eye blinking, nervous thing, and he can't even look. He does not give Andy Medal eye contact.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:54

In this, he does the bumbling, stuttering, blinking nervous thing, but he does look at Anna Scott. He does look at Julie Roberts, and he's able, it's almost like he's the the character he always plays just moves on slightly further in each film.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:08

Got more confidence as an act.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:10

It's like the character has evolved slightly as these films go on. It's funny, it's it is funny. Um, but I enjoyed reading all like the breakdown of all his the things he says and he's like.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:19

I was gonna say that's similar to the Tom Cruise thing, isn't it? Where you know in all those films he plays the same character, Top Gun. He's a cocky pilot who loses confidence, meet a girl, and gets confidence back. But it's always to do with his dad, there's always a dead dad out there, and then Days of Thunder, he's a cocky race driver who loses confidence, meet a girl, yeah, yeah, cocktail, cocky bar guy, loses confidence, meet a girl gets it.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:42

So they're just wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:44

There was a wing formula.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:46

There was a really funny piece called What That Last Brownie Really Means by Cole Hardin. And it was just really good talking about how each of the um characters, how we get to learn it through that first dinner party and through their talking about their situations for the before the last brownie, it shows how they're all accepting Anna, like they're not treating her like she's sort of up there because they kind of go, ah nice. She's a person of that. She's a person, she gets to have her say, and she's sort of seen as their equal. But he said, uh, he says, This is me paraphrasing, but I'll quote something in a minute. He sort of describes how Notting Hill isn't actually what you think it's about. You you think it's about an everyday guy who meets this superstar woman, falls in love, um, and escapes his ordinary night ordinary life. And he says, No, this is what it is. Notting Hill is the story of a goddess desperate to escape her gilded cage for something real, who meets and falls in love with a mortal who could set her free. Because Notting Hill isn't Will Thacker's story, not really, it's Anna Scott's. And then he says, Will actually plays the shallow role of so many female characters in romantic comedies over the years, such as Andy McDowell's Carrie in Four Weddings and a Funeral. His whole story is about val validating his existence through the love of another. Now I really enjoyed reading that article because he gave loads more insights into a whole bunch of things, but I'm still not sold. I was just wanted to say, I was just trying to say, so you're wrong, you're a- Yeah, he did he he has a really compelling argument, and I really enjoyed it, and I've sh I'll share it in the show notes. But yeah, it's an interesting, it's a different way to look at it, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:20

So there's a question I always ask you.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:24

What if this was on TV? Would you stop and watch it?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:26

Do you know what? If so, if it I I watched this last yesterday afternoon. If this happened last week and I saw that it was on, I might stop and watch it. Because it had been like 15 years, I'd be like, oh, not again, not to that for ages. Now I've seen it again. No, I'm done with it.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:44

I'm done with it. See how you can watch this easy one to you.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:47

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:48

I felt gross. I watched this again last night for the podcast. If I went home Saturday it was on channel four, I would watch it.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:00

I just it didn't make me feel good. It just I think Spike is too gross to be c funny now. And two, just his views and the way he speaks about women and everything is just no, sorry. I think I don't know, I just didn't You didn't get any warmth. I didn't get the warmth.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:22

And I I still get that.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:24

Well, so I've already slightly mentioned this. So there's an article call uh called Notting Hill, What Works, What Doesn't by Beth Lig Lizzigorky. No, I'll say that again. There's an article called Notting Hill, What Works, What Doesn't by Beth Lysigorski. And I sort of mentioned it earlier, but she picks up on it that this was the peak friends era where sort of families made of friends, you know, your sort of social group becoming your ride or dies, you know, everything. You know, we don't see any well, we don't see any parents. We have referenced to Will's mum a couple of times, but we don't see any of that. We see them being there for each other. Um, and it's it was of that time, that's very 90s. You had things like coupling, you had things like um oh, the thing with James Nesbitt, what was it called? Oh not Coldfeet. Was it Coldfeet?

SPEAKER_00 1:19:11

Yeah, it's Cold Feet. One of the actresses from Cold Feet is in this, isn't she?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:15

She's in one of the Oh Emma Watts, Emily Mortimer, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:19

Again, that scene I didn't go over that scene because it's just silly that's silly and it's stereotypes.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:27

And here's a woman who is like crazy, let's get pissed. Here's a woman who's crazy because she eats fruit and doesn't eat things with eyes, and here's a woman who apparently is perfect, Emily Mortimer.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:35

And we never see her again.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:36

But we never see her again, and also why is she perfect? She has no personality, nothing happened, she doesn't say anything, she's just polite.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:45

And this is why you glossed over that scene.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:47

Exactly, yeah. It just about that. Um do you remember I talked last week about Peter Bradshaw, the Guardian critic? Yes, and I said that I never get on with him.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:55

I don't get on with him because he loves Notting Hill.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:58

He sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:00

Yeah, I'll I'll link his thing. He basically, it's I'm not gonna read it, but it's called My Guilty Pleasure, Notting Hill by Peter Bradshaw.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:07

Well it is like a guilty pleasure, and that's for me it is a guilty pleasure.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:10

Yeah. The final thing I'm gonna share, and it's a bit of a long quote, but it made me laugh. It's cut it it's written with love, so it's someone who loves this film. It's called A Tribute to the Most Chaotic Romcom Ever Made by Anne T. Donohue. And it she really likes it, and she talks about how much she loved it, and there's a whole preamble about how she first watched it. But this this did make me laugh. So Anna Scott's entire personality is I am famous. She's an actress who chooses to randomly kiss Hugh Grant, whose name in the movie doesn't matter, nor do I choose to remember it, after he spills cappuccino on her t-shirt, it was homage juice, but that's fine. And she has to change into a new outfit at his Notting Hill home. Then she summons him to a press junkie to her hotel, joins him for dinner with his friends for his sister's birthday, and then over the course of their intense two or three days together, fails to tell him she was with Alec Baldwin, who is an absolute ghoul. It's weird, right? Weirder still is that after she's caught at his house after a personal scandal, after she invites him to watch a film a scene from her new movie, after she brings him a painting about goats and love and floating through space, he is compelled to be with her to the point of declaring said love at a press conference for something. It doesn't matter. In the end, I think they've met maybe five times. This dear reader is madness. And I agree. That's basically your review. She loves it and watches it all the time, and I find that un not lovable. I can't I can't get into it. I can't.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:38

Well that's just you.

unknown 1:21:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:42

So but I apologize to everyone who loves this film.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:46

Don't need to apologise, because I love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:48

I think I think if I was gonna watch a Richard Curtis film again, for you know, the warmth or for the whatever, I think four weddings would be before this. Because as much as it's still probably dated, I'm sure there's fat shaming still probably in it, I just find I think there's still I can remember funny lines that make me laugh out loud more. And then the film yesterday, which was not that long ago. Oh, I don't did he did he write it? I think he wrote it but didn't direct it, I'm not sure. Danny um Boyle directed that.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:16

But I enjoy that more.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:18

Again, there's still goddesses and I I have to say there's a s there's a thing that would stop me watching yesterday again, and that's the John Lennon scene that didn't need to be in it.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:28

It didn't need to be in it. No, Robert Carlisle move it anywhere. I like Robert Carlyle.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:32

Yeah, no, he's great.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:33

But it didn't, yeah, that definitely didn't need to be in it.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:35

Well, next week it's your turn to choose the film. Have you decided what's going to be?

SPEAKER_03 1:22:41

I have, and I am a hundred percent sure, no, I'm 99.9% sure you've never seen this film. And it's a very different tack from this week. And I don't even know if you're gonna like it, but we're going with it. We're going for a bit of political sort of a thriller type theme, but not very thrilling. It's a gentle political thriller, and it is all the president's men.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:07

I have never seen it.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:08

No, I didn't think you had. It it it it's brilliant, but I'm not sure how brilliant you will find it watching it once. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:17

Brilliant like Notting Hill.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:18

Oh, it's so much better than Notting Hill. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:23

Okay. And if people want more, where can they find you?

SPEAKER_03 1:23:26

Okay, so I'm at NikkiBomb.com, and also if you search for the Lisa McCaulief stories, you'll find all about what I'm writing. How about you?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:35

Um Toffee Zar Ruz on YouTube and Phil Tyrman on TikTok. Excellent stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:41

So thank you for listening to all of our thoughts, and until the next time, bye bye.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:47

Thank you, see you later.