I’m a big fan of English romantic comedies. I don’t know why exactly, except that I find that at the end of an American romantic comedy (typically starring Adam Sandler or Brittany Murphy or some other nightmare) at the end I feel just a wee bit number and stupider and manipulated.
But at the end of an English romantic comedy, I find that I can feel a whole range of things – warm, wistful, but most of all, I feel smart –
So, tell me, if I liked these movies …
Four Weddings and a Funeral (even with Andie MacDowell dragging it down)
Bridget Jones’s Diary (but I hated the sequel)
Fever Pitch (the Colin Firth version, not the Drew Barrymore version)
Love Actually
About a Boy
High Fidelity (What happens when Americans refuse to dumb down an English story? You get a damn good movie!)
An Awfully Big Adventure
What about Notting Hill?
Same production company, I think, same witer (and some of the same cast cast) as* Four Weddings and a funera*l and Love Actually.
I’ve avoided “Notting Hill” because of my dislike for Julia Roberts. Could I get some assurance that she doesn’t ruin the movie?
I just noticed how many of the movies in my list feature Hugh Grant. It’s not that I have any particular feelings about Grant one way or the other. I hated “Nine Months” and I’ve avoided “Mickey Blue Eyes” and “Two Weeks Notice” because the previews I’ve seen make me think they suck. It just may be that I don’t have to try to hard to persuade my wife to see a Hugh Grant movie.
Notting Hill is good despite the presence of Julia Roberts. In fact, because she’s basically playing herself, she is less annoying than normal. But it’s the rest of the cast that make the movie shine.
If you could get through Four weddings, even with Andie McDowell, you can cope with Roberts, I’m sure!
It’s worth it for Spike alone! Rhys Ifans - he’s fantastic in it.
A pair that may be worth a look: Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence (American title: The Very Thought of You) and The Man with Rain in His Shoes (American title: Twice Upon a Yesterday).
Oh, and yeah, what everyone else said…see Notting Hill, if only for the “year-long stroll” scene…some damn fine cinematography, that.
See, I think Julia Roberts not only ruined Notting Hill, she stomped the shit out of it and then pissed on the remains. But then, I really dislike Julia Roberts.
And I second Cold Comfort Farm. If you like that, try I Capture the Castle – which was also a really good book.
Interesting - in America, it was released as “The Englishman who went up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain” - like they needed to specify it was an englishman.
You would probably like “Notting Hill”. Julia isn’t too annoying. I found some of the rest of the cast “trying too hard” to be counterparts to characters in “Four Weddings”. But it is a decent effort.
Not really a romantic comedy, you might also like “Waking Ned Devine”. And, as mentioned, “Bend it Like Beckham”.
But stay away from “Two Weeks Notice” ! Horrible. And I found “Muriel’s Wedding” more sad than funny.
Saving Grace – a middle-aged woman (Brenda Blethyn) whose husband kills himself, leaving her with big debts, strikes a deal with her younger gardener (Craig Ferguson, before his TV hosting success) to grow pot to pay the bills. Bittersweet, genial English comedy set in a picturesque rural village.
But if it’s a gut-busting comedy you really want, I’d go with Flirting With Disaster, even though it’s neither a traditional rom-com* nor British – since it’s an American screwball written & dir. by David O. Russell. It’s far more edgy, zany, and anarchic than “Four Weddings” and their ilk and it has a terrific cast. I think this is the funniest movie made in the last, oh, decade or so. Don’t miss it!
Standard romantic comedies are all about the main girl and guy pairing off, overcoming various obstacles (mostly ridiculous) to do so. “Flirting,” OTOH, begins with a married couple with a newborn, and procedes to set various temptations and distractions across their path, to great comic effect.
I’m laughing just thinking of it.)