Two Weeks Notice (2002)
Conventional wisdom would seem that
if you put Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock together
on screen then Wham! Bam! you've got a movie. Well,
a script would help. Unfortunately, "Two Weeks Notice"
has no script. The charm of Bullock and the charm
of Grant mix nicely here but they've got, essentially,
nothing to do but avoid the obvious chemistry between
them for two hours before melting into a kiss at the
end of the film. For a while it works but eventually
it just gets tedious and monotonous.
To be sure, the film begins with
a huge gaff. After a wonderful CGI-effected intro
where snapshots of Bullock and Grant as youngsters
are manipulated to give us the impression that she
was raised to be a bleeding-heart liberal while he
was raised a spoiled rich kid, the opening scene with
the adult Bullock finds her betraying her character.
She's trying to stop a wrecking crew from demolishing
a building. To make a long story short, at one point
in the proceedings a plastic Ziplock bag she herself
has brought to the event flies by her in the breeze.
Does the supposed environmentalist and socially conscious
character Bullock plays grab the plastic refuse and
put it in her pocket? Nope. She brushes it aside and
lets it continue on its course to be litter. Stupid.
There are a plethora of talented
folks around Bullock and Grant but none of them do
much to help or hinder the obvious headlong course
into romance that they are headed for. Alicia Witt
(still best known from TV's "Cybill") does help propel
the inevitable conclusion with her character which
rivals Bullock for Grant's attention but its a thankless
job and she looks rather silly doing it. Robert Klein
and Dana Ivey are nice as Bullock's supposedly liberal
parents but they are given almost nothing to do. (Hey,
at least this didn't turn into the film version of
TV's "Dharma and Greg.")
Writer Marc Lawrence, who also penned
Bullock's "Miss Congeniality," gets a chance to direct
here, presumably as a thank you from producer Miss
Bullock for two scripts where she gets to highlight
her comedic and romantic talents. Lawrence's witty
dialogue, which Grant and Bullock get to cast off
as their own seeming charm, is quite deserving of
this opportunity. Lawrence certainly doesn't do anything
horrendously wrong but his pacing is a bit off and
the film really begins to flounder throughout the
final hour.
"Two Weeks Notice" certainly delivers
all you expect of it. That is, presuming your expectations
weren't for anything out of the ordinary.
Note:
With cameos by Mike Piazza and Donald
Trump. Filmed in New York.
There were rumors of Grant and Bullock
not getting along during filming.
Viewed in Austin in December 2002
on the day the film opened.
