Notting Hill is a 1999 romantic comedy film directed by Roger Michell. The screenplay was written by Richard Curtis, and the film was produced by Duncan Kenworthy. The film stars Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, with Rhys Ifans, Emma Chambers, Tim McInnerny, Gina McKee, and Hugh Bonneville in supporting roles. The story is of a romance between a London bookseller (Grant) and a famous American actress (Roberts) who happens to walk into his shop.
Plot[]
William Thacker owns a travel book store in Notting Hill, London. Divorced, Will shares a flat with Spike, a flaky and sloppy Welshman. One day, famous Hollywood actress Anna Scott enters the shop and buys a book. Shortly after she leaves, Will bumps into her while rounding a street corner, spilling his juice on her. He takes Anna to his flat that is directly across the street so she can change into something clean. When leaving, she impulsively kisses him.
Anna later invites him to visit her at the Ritz Hotel. Upon his arrival he is mistaken for a reporter and ushered into a press junket for her new film. When asked, he says he writes for Horse & Hound magazine. Anna asks to be William's date at his sister's birthday party later that evening. Though his friends and family are surprised, Anna gets on well with everyone and enjoys herself. Later, the two enter a private neighbourhood park, where Anna again kisses Will.
At a restaurant the next day, Will and Anna overhear four men at a nearby table discussing her, first praising and then disparaging her and equating actresses to prostitutes. Will confronts them, then she introduces herself and calmly insults the stunned foursome.
Anna invites Will to her hotel room, but he quickly leaves after discovering that her movie star boyfriend, Jeff King, has unexpectedly arrived from America. Over the next six months, Will's friends arrange a series of dates for him, but Will, unable to forget Anna, is uninterested in another relationship. Much of the filming took place on Portobello Road.
One day, a distraught Anna appears at Will's doorstep, needing to hide from a tabloid scandal. She apologises about King and says their relationship is over. They discover shared interests, and discuss Will's print of Marc Chagall's 1950 painting La Mariée. They make love that night. The next morning, paparazzi, inadvertently tipped off by Spike, besiege the house and take photos of Will, Anna, and a half-dressed Spike at the front door. Furious, she blames Will and leaves.
Several seasons pass, and Will remains miserable. When he discovers Anna is back in London making a film based on a Henry James novel, something he had suggested, he visits the set unannounced. She asks him to wait until shooting is done, but he leaves after overhearing her being dismissive about him to another actor. Anna comes to the bookshop the next day, bringing a wrapped gift. Will says he overheard what she said about him to her co-star. She explains that she was merely keeping her personal life private from another actor. She proclaims that she loves him, and pleads to rekindle their relationship. Will says no, explaining he would be too hurt if she left him again.
Will meets his friends and sister at a restaurant with Anna's partly opened gift: Chagall's original La Mariée ("The Bride"). They half-heartedly support his decision about Anna until Spike arrives and calls him a "daft prick". Will realizes his mistake, and everyone races across London to find Anna, who is holding a press conference at the Savoy Hotel. Will arrives just as her publicist announces that Anna is taking a year off and is leaving the UK that night.
A reporter asks about the embarrassing photographs taken at Will's flat, and Anna says they are just friends. Will, again pretending to be a Horse & Hound reporter, asks her if she would consider being more than friends if Thacker begged her forgiveness. She says she would, then asks to be asked again how long she plans to stay in England. Smiling, she answers "indefinitely".
Anna and Will marry and she is now pregnant. They spend time in the private park that they had visited on their first date.