“Harvard… intriguing…”. The exact two words every HBS girl hopes Hugh Grant will utter when he meets her.
In “Two Weeks Notice”, Lucy Kelson (Bullock) is a brilliant but neurotic Harvard lawyer whose current cause is saving a Brooklyn community center. The filthy-rich corporate figurehead of the company trying to destroy it, George Wade (Grant), has recently been told by his brother that he has to stop hiring bimbo graduates of St. Tropez Law School as company counsel. Wade agrees to save Kelson’s building in return for her legal services. A year of service later, Lucy is driven to an ulcer by George’s needs for fashion advice and late-night nannying, so she quits. When her replacement turns out to be a younger, prettier woman (Alicia Witt), Lucy must reexamine her real feelings for George.
There might be critics who say we’ve seen Grant as the vain, bumbling ne’er-do-well one too many times. Or, that we’re tired of Bullock playing the mousy second fiddle that always gets the guy in the end. There might be critics who say these characters are poorly conceived, that this story is just an excuse for these actors to display their physical comedy and mock their own appeal. But I am not that critic.
Give me Grant as the shallow heart of a profit machine who fears women of high intellect. Give me Bullock as the jail-bound, Greenpeace-loving, tofu-eating environmentalist. Give me these, and I’ll take the 100 minutes on fun. Grant is hilarious in everything he does. Sure, I’d rather see him in a more clever film ala “About a Boy”, but I am not going to boycott this outing because it isn’t intellectually stimulating.
This film managed to keep me on my toes. I kept thinking-it’ll end in the coffee room. No, on the rooftop. No, in the restaurant. I won’t tell you where it ends, but the consummation of their developing love was about as drawn-out as they come, so you’ll get your money’s worth!
So don’t misunderstand me-this is a very predictable piece of fluff. But it is charming and fun. It is chock full of cheesy romantic moments with catchy dialogue and great execution by two talented stars. And in the end, the Harvard girl gets the devastatingly handsome guy. What more could we ask for?
