Two Weeks Notice

Review by Clint Morris

Fred and Ginger. Wayne and O’Hara. Bogie and Bacall. Tracy and Hepburn. Taylor and Burton. Roberts and Gere. Hanks and Ryan. All Treasured couples of the silver screen - and now a new candidate for the coveted citation… Hugh and Sandra.

Ok, they’ve been pushed upon us a little too much by the tabloid magazines and mightn’t be as memorable nor gleaming as some of the former crew...

But believe it or not, they might just find themselves a place in that list – albeit at the bottom – as one of the most charming on-screen couples in recent times.

Two Weeks Notice, as a film, is exactly what you’d think it would be. A reasonably funny – by that we understand to be 2 or 3 good jokes at most - minutely cute rom-com that’ll last about a week or so in cinemas.

We know what we’re walking into when we go see it, and we’re reasonably contented with the outcome. But while the film’s template might be as old hat as a dirt-trodden pretzel, there’s something extra beguiling about this light-fluff… the obvious chemistry between leads, Hugh and Sandra.

While both deny a romance ever took place on the set (that’d be a first for both) there’s some obvious sparks going on there. And mercifully, it translates well to the screen.

Hugh is his emblematic haughty self with that adorable dry sense of humour and befuddled schoolboy delivery, while Bullock the untraditional girl next door with gaucheness pencilled in to her daily contingent.

In the film, he’s the womanising high-flyer. She’s the hard-up, chorus for all things wrong with corporate takeover. When Lucy (Bullock) spots on an opportunity to publicly voice her aversion in all things being demolished to real estate developer, George Wade (Grant) – he inadvertently shrugs off her statement, only noticing how well spoken and persuading she is.

Needless to say, Lucy is given the job as George’s personal assistant. That way, she believes, she at least will be able to stop some of those beloved buildings from being knocked down.

Flash-forward to a year later, and Lucy is really tiring from being at George’s beck and call, and so announces to her boss that she’s leaving. She gives him his ‘two weeks notice’ and promises to help find a surrogate.

Oh, how will they ever live without each other? It takes them a well to get a clue, but unavoidably, their future together is pellucidly written in the stars.

Two Weeks Notice won’t win any Oscars and won’t make any yearly Top 10 lists, but with such charming performances from the principal twosome, it might surprise most of the fluff sceptics.

3 out of 5

Two Weeks Notice
Australian release: Thursday January 1
Cast: Hugh Grant, Sandra Bullock, Alicia Witt, Robert Klein, Dana Ivey, Heather Burns, David Haig.
Director: Marc D Lawerence.
Website: Click here

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