Movie Profile: NOTTING HILL (1999)

Attribute Details
Title Notting Hill
Release Date May 21, 1999 (UK) / May 28, 1999 (USA)
Director Roger Michell
Writer Richard Curtis
Genre Romance, Comedy, Drama
Runtime 124 minutes
Budget $42 million
Box Office $363.8 million worldwide
Lead Cast

• Julia Roberts (Anna Scott)

• Hugh Grant (William Thacker)

• Rhys Ifans (Spike)

• Emma Chambers (Honey Thacker)

Major Accolades

• BAFTA Awards: Won the Audience Award for Most Popular Film; Nominated for Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film.

• Golden Globe Awards: Nominated for 3 awards, including Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, Best Actor (Hugh Grant), and Best Actress (Julia Roberts).

Trailer

Plot Overview

William Thacker (Hugh Grant) is a quiet, divorced travel bookstore owner living in the vibrant, eclectic London neighborhood of Notting Hill. His mundane life—filled with eccentric friends and his bizarre Welsh flatmate Spike (Rhys Ifans)—is turned upside down when international superstar actress Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) walks into his shop to buy a book.

A few minutes later, William accidentally collides with Anna on a street corner, spilling orange juice all over her clothes. He offers his nearby house for her to change, leading to an impulsive, unexpected kiss that sparks an unlikely romance between a global icon and an ordinary retail worker.

As their relationship deepens, the couple must navigate the crushing weight of paparazzi intrusion, Hollywood press junkets, and the vast cultural divide between a glamorous movie-star life and a quiet London existence. After multiple misunderstandings and periods of separation, the film builds to a famous climax where Anna returns to the bookstore, delivering one of cinema’s most iconic confessions: “I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”