1999, 2hrs 3 min., Rated PG-13 for sexual content and brief strong language. Dir: Roger Mitchell. Cast: Julia Roberts (Anna Scott), Hugh Grant (William Thacker), Rhys Ifans (Spike).

Notting Hill is a formulaic, by-the-numbers romantic comedy. Yet, it still manages to capture your heart. No matter how cliche any number of situations were, I kept noticing a large smile plastered across my face. And there was enough originality to keep it fresh. It is definitely a favorite with the females of our species. I saw it at 11 a.m., with 20 women, me and a teen boy who was dragged there with two girl friends (smart guy).

First, though, I figured out what happened to all the commercials that George Lucas wouldn't let run in front of The Phantom Menace. There were seven in front of Notting Hill. Seven! At least four of the five trailers I had to yet to see on screen. So it evened out a little.

Back to Notting Hill. Julia Roberts could melt the cheese the makes up the moon with her smile. She's not near the top of the list of actresses to date before I die, but that smile gets me every time. Hugh Grant seems to have the niche down of cute British actors who aren't sure of themselves and constantly spout adorable British phrases like "bugger" and "bollocks".

PLOT: Anna Scott (Roberts) is the world's most popular movie star, falls for bookshop owner William Thacker (Grant), and the rest of the film we wait for them to finally get together and live happily ever after.

The fact that Anna is an actress is what keeps Notting Hill from falling into every romantic comedy misstep. For example, how many times are there "misunderstandings" in romantic comedies that just anger the audience more than make us sympathetic? Dang it, say what you should and it'll all be over in five minutes! If she saw you kiss your sister on the cheek in the park, tell her it was your sister! But, there is none of that in Notting Hill and I was more than happy. The problems incurred by "Miss Popular dates Mr. Unkown" is enough to give the relationship some distressful moments. It's difficult to empathize with Anna, though. She is withdrawn and always the cause of the relationship's problems, and I was fairly upset with her most of the time. Then she smiled. And I smiled. And I melted.

Thacker's roommate, Spike, adds nothing to this film. No matter how many times I hear how viewers love him, I don't understand it one bit. He is annoying, filthy, negligent and the worst roommate I can ever imagine having. I think he's modeled after Puck from MTV's "The Real World", which makes it even worse because that guy needed to be shot. And I'm going easy on him.

The rest of the supporting cast, however, works very well for the film. They are salt the earth normal persons who just happen to have a friend who is dating the most popular woman on the planet. Yet they don't let Thacker get out of touch with reality, and themselves stay grounded. They are quirky, yet playful and would be great pals. Except Spike. I have doubts about Thacker's sister, also, but not as much as Spike.

After a few minutes, the word "Notting" starts to look really dumb and strange. Which is nothing when compared to my complaint to the studio and filmmakers of Notting Hill. STOP giving so much away in previews! I saw so many of the important humorous or emotional moments in the trailer or commercials, which is NEVER good! There were moments watching the movie where I knew the punchline three minutes ahead of the joke itself, and was waiting for the delivery on key supposed-to-be emotional instances.