‘Two Weeks Notice’ romantic, charming
Published 8:05 am Friday, February 22, 2008
Sandra Bullock’s career has had its ups and downs. She seems to come across better when she plays comedy. The success of her slow moving “While You Were Sleeping” (1995), and the popular “Miss Congeniality” (2000) were dependent on her comic touch as both a physical and emotional klutz. When she goes all dark and dramatic like she did in “28 Days” (2000) and “Forces of Nature” (1999) audiences (including myself) seem to like her less.
We’re a fickle lot, we moviegoers, and we’ve hopelessly cast Bullock as our beautiful best friend. That’s partially why her new film, “Two Weeks Notice” is so much fun. As Harvard educated lawyer Lucy Kelson, Bullock may reclaim her crown as the rom-com (romantic comedy) queen. It helps (a lot!) that she plays against a lead who is her equal. Hugh Grant, who is not quite the dashing young lad he once was, nevertheless turns in a charming performance as millionaire George Wade.
The story is told in the best tradition of girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy back. Lucy is an activist willing to lay down her life (on a blue foamie) for things she believes in. A tireless worker for just causes, she goes head to head with George when he wants to tear down the Coney Island community center to put up a big hi-rise. Instead of making sure Lucy ends up in jail for defying his right to destruct, George offers Lucy the job as his chief counsel, giving her millions of charitable contributions to donate according to her discretion.
While not wanting to sell-out, Lucy’s parents (Dana Ivey and Robert Klein) advise her to follow the 2000-year-old advice of Sun-tzu to “keep her friends close and her enemies closer.” So she takes the job and quickly goes from giving legal advice to giving advice on what color socks to wear with what suit.
The final straw is when George sends an emergency message to Lucy while she’s right in the middle of being the maid of honor at her best friend’s wedding. Lucy decides it’s time to give her two-week notice and look for a job that’s 9-to-5 instead of 24/7.
This is where the fun really begins and unfortunately, you have to wait a long time for it to kick in. That’s really the fault of first time director and screenwriter Marc Lawrence. He should have started the story at the point where Lucy is already fed up with the job, given us one big blow up scene and then gotten on with the hi-jinxs.
But Lawrence makes up for this flaw by giving us some pretty funny one-liners. A few of them like Lucy’s comment to George that he ‘needs someone to write a brief instead of removing yours’ are a bit strained. But there are some jokes that are truly hilarious in the context of the film.
Ultimately, it’s the chemistry between Bullock and Grant that makes this film work and I thought it was worth wading through the rough beginning to get to.
E-mail Luanne Brown with questions or comments at: luanne@copper-parrot.com.
