The Four Weddings and A Funeral(1994) team produced another smash with this charming tale about charming, bumbling bookshop owner William Thacker (Hugh Grant) who falls for the “most famous actress in the world”, Anna Scott (Julia Roberts).
Inevitably, the course of true love is a bumpy road, with friends, family and layabout flatmate Spike (played by Rhys Ifans in a career-making performance) getting in the way, but that’s the cue for a series of screamingly funny scenarios.
Saturated with wit and well-directed by Roger Michell, the film was bashed by sceptics for its fluffiness and lack of realism (for a racially mixed area of London, there’s not a black face to be seen), but if you can accept the context as 100 per cent white middle class, with a light-hearted commentary on the nature of celebrity, it’s an intensely enjoyable experience.
Anna Scott
Julia Roberts William Thacker
Hugh Grant Bernie
Hugh Bonneville Honey
Emma Chambers Martin
James Dreyfus Spike
Rhys Ifans Max
Tim McInnerny Bella
Gina McKee Tony
Richard McCabe Rufus the thief
Dylan Moran
Director
Roger Michell
Video
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