From: Ed
Category: Amis
Date: 6/25/99
Time: 6:53:34 PM
Remote Name: 194.230.26.102
I've been thinking about this recently & my conclusion was that noone has written anything like MA since he's been doing it (which I find surprising). Apart from me, obviously, & Geoff, but our great novels are so far unpublished. I thought noone dared...
For no obviously related reason here's my mini review of Notting Hill for anyone who cares....
'Portobello Revisited.'
I saw Notting Hill at The Gate Cinema, Notting Hill, on Saturday evening....& perhaps it > was the irony of the location, but I rushed out afterwards into the balmy > night to find a pub in the Portobello Road merely with the aim of > reassuring myself that Hugh Grant wasn't there. > > Julia gambolled about the screen dewy-eyed & lithe, certainly, but the > stuttering ineffectiveness for which Grant became known after Four > Weddings & a Funeral seemed to have spread to every other male member of > cast. I wanted to yell 'timber' as public school syndrome felled the men > one after the other like a thicket of Dutch Elms. And the women weren't > much better; putting a good actress in a wheelchair & expecting instant > gravity is like writing a mediocre cliche-riden script & expecting the > success of its 'spiritual' predecessor to make it worthwhile.> > Curtis appears to have taken all the sentimental touches which charmed in > 4W&AF, multiplied them by 100 & forgotten to add the crucial element > needed to make the soggy dough of NH rise: irony. As I settled down amidst > the pleasant popcorn imbued air of expectation, even as early on as > Grant's initial voiceover it was the corniness of the sentiments expressed > which struck me: Arcadia has nothing on Portobello Rd when the sun's out. > That may be what the recently enriched middle classes of those parts tell > each other breathlessly over Guinness at The Portobello Star on a summer's > evening, but Curtis is no Waugh (& Grant is no Jeremy Irons) & 4W&AF > revisited it was not.> > As the 'plot' unfolded it became clear that the film could have been > entitled 'Fulham Broadway' or perhaps 'South Kensington' & probably would > have been if Curtis had lived behind a blue door there. He seems to be > indulging in a youthful Freudian dream sequence in this movie where the > male adults are tongue-tied, the women trauma-inducing & the Welsh merely > mad. (As far as I am aware Freud had nothing against the Welsh but perhaps > this inherited distrust has surfaced via Richard's partner Emma.) The > script had the air of having been through so many rewrites that the plot > had worn into holes & the writer had forgotten what the jokes had been in > the first place. What is Curtis saying about fame? that it is irrelevant? > unfair? abused? This film says nothing new on the subject; fame ends up > being merely power most of the time here & that is not a novel conclusion. > The yelp from my companion at the tired & totally expected ending summed > it up. Still, all my friends (some of whom live in Notting Hill) have told > me it's a 'feel good movie'. I think there was more emotion at the Oscars > this year. Notting Hill didn't make me feel good; it made me feel bad. And > that's a feeling best left unrevisited.