Yes. I'm reviewing a new movie I saw. Two Weeks Notice, to be exact. And yes, its a corporate comedy about a boss and his employee, an employee who quite but finds she's in love with her boss.
But...its not quite that simple. To understand that this tad-bit-more-complex-than-most-romantic-comedies-comedy(actually, a lot like an old 30's comedy, where inspiration came from), you have to know a little bit of the plot.
SPOILERS
Sandra Bullock is Lucy, a small-time lawyer whose dream is to try to preserve certain landmarks in New York from corporate real estate raiders - namely the Wade Corporation, run by Harold Wade and his younger brother George (aka High Grant), the face of the company. Lucy has learned (after an attempt to save a district theater fails) that the corporation is going to try to knock down the Coney Island Community Center, a long-standing YMCA-type, to make a condo rise. So she goes directly to George to stop the project.
George, who is a bit of a spendthrift playboy (and is divorced from his first wife because of this), is looking for a pretty lawyer at the behest of his brother to handle his properties and his lawsuits - one who comes from an Ivy League school as opposed to the clueless models he has employed before. Enter when he first meets Lucy - she's a Harvard grad! Woo! But she doesn't want the job - she want the community center saved.
So the two end up compromising - Lucy will work for George and be his lawyer. In return, George makes a binding contract that says the company will never touch the community center. So it goes for a year - until George's dependence on Lucy becomes abolutely ridiculous to the point where it interferes with her personal life. (And no, not because they have sex.)
After one particular night, Lucy gets so frustrated that she gives George her two weeks notice - hence the story and where most of the action revolves. Unfortunately, as the two weeks go by, she more and more begins to realize that she loves him even as an ugly betrayal is about to rear its head.
Normally, I am not a big fan of romantic comedies. But the plot is very different from most romantic movies that take place in a work setting out there - normally, the person is getting hired, not quitting - and most of the cliches that come up in romantic comedies (such as there must be a hint of sex for the main couple for it to be romantic) is thankfuly avoided. And there are a lot of points in it that are genuinely funny and not neccessarily raunchy. This is probably why Sandra Bullock said she's not doing romantic movies for a while after this - when it comes to originality in terms of plot devices (watch out for the job hunting scene), this is the best film she (and probably Hugh Grant) have been in in a loooong time.
Speaking of the actors, they are very good in this movie. George Lopez called Sandra Bullock the best physical comedy actress he knew, and judging by all of the falling, catfighting and tripping she does, she puts Sailor Moon to relevant shame, I tell you! And Hugh Grant......uh, he's Hugh Grant.....as an insenitive bulbhead only starting to realize money and jerking off ain't the only motivation in the world. Only he does it better in this movie than About A Boy.
But....of course.......there is a flaw, sadly. And that flaw is this: there are a few moments in the movie that really drag on. Really drag on. This happens closer to the end than at the beginning, but those moments where I went, "Oh!! HURRY UP!!!!" were the moments that ruined the movie. The bad part is that there seemed to be some more as the movie went on towards the end. Its not Forrest Gump, where, even though its long, all of the parts are interesting. This is a short movie, people, and there were parts where I really was thinking "Ok, on to the next part, people..."
But, aside from those parts, its still a movie to go see. In a way, its a hurrah to an old era where sexual stuff wasn't everything; yet its also a w00t to some new comedic ideas (who'd have thought staplers were funny in that way?!). If I had to choose between the two movies that each of the two main actors did this year, its this movie I'd pick, hands down.
OVERALL: 3.5/5
Read and react, my friends! :p
