Thursday, February 10, 2022

Thursday Movie Picks: Famous Person and Non-Famous Person Romance (Romantic Tropes Edition)

 

For the sixth week of 2022 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks as part of the romantic tropes series. We go into the subject of famous person and non-famous person romance where some famous person meets an ordinary person and falls in love with that person creating all sorts of problems but also ponder if it is true love. Here are my three picks all starring Hugh Grant:

1. Notting Hill
One of the finest romantic films of the late 1990s is this incredible story about a shy bookstore owner at Notting Hill who gets a visit from a big-time movie star as they would meet each other again and again where they fall in love. Yet, it is a film that is filled with some incredible supporting characters yet it is Hugh Grant as the bookstore owner and Julia Roberts as the movie star. It’s a film that is well-written by Richard Curtis and wonderfully-helmed by the late, great Roger Michell as it is a film that isn’t afraid to be sensitive but also knows when to be funny.

2. Love Actually
From Richard Curtis is a film that I don’t like very much as I think it’s overrated and it is a mess yet the storyline involving Hugh Grant’s character as the British prime minister who falls for his new secretary where he has to vie for her affection against the visiting American president in Billy Bob Thornton is a decent storyline. Especially as Thornton learns a lesson about being president and visiting Britain, don’t ever take a woman from another man and if that man is the Prime Minister. Oh boy, fly your fat-ass back to America!

3. Music & Lyrics
Playing the role of a fading 80s pop star who is asked to write a song for a young pop singer, Hugh Grant plays the role of a fading pop star whose writing partner had left him many years ago and became a bigger star. It is in Drew Barrymore as a woman hired to take care of Grant’s plants that would become his new lyricist. It is a film that is filled with a lot of charm with Grant doing some of his own singing as well as a lot of dancing that has him shaking his bum a lot. After all, we can’t get enough Hugh Grant and what better way to end this list than with Hugh Grant…. DANCING!!!!





© thevoid99 2022

6 comments:

Brittani Burnham said...

Music and Lyrics is popular this week and I’ve never seen it. This was a hard theme for me.

Realweegiemidget Reviews said...

Great choices, Hugh Grant is fantastic in Music and Lyrics.. Reviewed that one too.

Sara said...

Oooh a Hugh Grant theme! I like all of these movies although Love Actually slightly less. Music and Lyrics is really cute and Notting Hill is a classic.

Katy said...

Great picks! Love the theme within a theme and all these picks. Hugh Grant is one of the most underrated actors around, and knows how to make all his rom-com characters different.

Birgit said...

You went all Hugh Grant too. I haven't seen Music & Lyrics but, when it's on TV again, maybe I will watch it. I am the opposite of you. I don't care for Nodding Off and didn't buy into the idea they fell in love plus I hate that scene where she is just a girl..blah blah..:). I do love Love, Actually and enjoyed all the different parts about love. I also love the part where the PM whips the president's ass. I have to see Paddington Bear now that I saw this musical interlude...hilarious!

thevoid99 said...

@Brittani-See it. You'll laugh your ass off.

@Realweegiemidget-That is a fun film. I think he's at his best either when he's given something where's allowed to be silly or to play against type.

@Sara-I was never into Love Actually either but the other 2 I do love.

@Katy-He is an actor that I think deserves more credit as there is more to him than rom-coms as he can also play dark characters such as the stuff he did in Cloud Atlas.

@Birgit-Paddington 2 is a rare kind of film that needs to be watched from start to finish as that musical bit in the post-credits scene is something that can never be unseen.