Two Weeks Notice (2002)
Hugh Grant is funny. Sandra Bullock is funny. "Two Weeks Notice" takes full advantage of both, and for a warm, if someone canned, romantic comedy, it's enjoyable.
The premise is two-fold. First is the idea that Bullock makes herself indispensable as an assistant to an unbelievably demanding boss (an precursor of the more recent "The Devil Wears Prada" though in this case Grant is also a bit incompetent). Then she has to give notice she is quitting. This makes Grant desperate, which is always fun to watch.
The other premise is the feel-good part where a community center with history needs to be saved, somehow (an echo, perhaps, of "You've Got Mail"). Bullock is a do-gooder and a smart one, and she finds working with Grant has threatened her idealism. In fact, this is the deeper part of the movie, if still treated with typical easy going slightness. I mean, this is no serious commentary for sure, any more than "My Man Godfrey" will really change our views about unemployment in the depression. But it helps to have a cause to root for.
Most of all I came to love Bullock for her natural on-screen personality. She's so likable in her own offbeat way you come to support her view of the world automatically. And in this case that's a good thing, even if you also understand how Grant's character is both a jerk and a lovable misguided rich man. Grant of course is his own kind of natural, and the two are rather good on screen. They might not have chemistry, the way you'd want the screen to steam up, but they have energy or synergy together, more like the other Grant (Cary) and some of his counterparts did in the old days.
I'm tilting this review toward a feeling that this is a screwball comedy as in the the late 30s and early 40s, and in a way it is, though not nutty enough perhaps to really qualify. It does have the standard romantic comedy problem of two leads who would be great together if only a million things weren't standing in the way.
This movie gets weak reviews overall, but I liked it, and don't hesitate to recommend it as a thin but enjoyable comedy.
