Salocin

Two Weeks Notice

Written and directed by Marc Lawrence II, who also has writing credits for Miss Congeniality, this quite charming and light-hearted Romantic Comedy is a little bit by the numbers, but it's a recipe that works, with two actors that are very experienced in the genre.

Sandra Bullock plays Lucy Kelson, a lawyer and staunch defender of the little person and his local monuments. In an attempt to prevent him from destroying a building in her community, she ends up working for property magnate George Wade, played by Hugh Grant, who quickly becomes dependent on her no-nonsense, straight talking interaction. Unfortunately, working for the rich and powerful is not her cup of tea, and he has to work hard to keep her, if not as legal counsel.

My opinions on this film may be a little skewed, because I watched it immediately after Mission to Mars, which ranks as one of the worse films of all time.

Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock are very capable romantic comedy actors, and Marc Lawrence proved with Miss Congeniality that he knows how to maintain the sharpness and wit of the dialogue, while injecting enough originality into the screenplay that it obscures the basic and familiar structure the genre depends on. So Two Weeks Notice doesn't fail to please.

Sandra Bullock is refreshingly convincing as Harvard Law School chief counsel for Hugh Grant's mysoginist magnate, and her irreverence towards him and his foibles is what draws them together from early on in their professional relationship. This hand is cunningly well underplayed throughout almost the entire movie, leaving so much unsaid and unshown that it is our traditional expectations of the genre that lead us to predict the outcome.

In a world of unrealistic, crass, muscle-bulging heroics from all of our traditional heroes (even James Bond succumbed to the temptation), it's nice to see two roles that are larger than life in their ability to feel, to change, to fall for the simple romantic stuff, instead of their ability to rise above ridiculous physical obstacles.

I'm not a huge fan of the romantic comedy genre, but it can be done very well, and it hasn't fallen prey to the ever-growing need for bigger-faster-better in film. The practitioners of this art can still elicit emotion in a simpler form, and while not high art, it compares very favourably with much of what's on offer today.

It won't stay with you for days after leaving the theatre, but you won't be disappointed. If you like romantic comedies, or Hugh Grant, or Sandra Bullock, then this is worth seeing.