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 aving learned her lesson with the unfortunate "Murder
By Numbers", Sandra Bullock is now back in a Romantic Comedy that
matches her up against shallow leading man Hugh Grant, who plays a shallow land
developer ala Donald Trump (who actually makes a cameo appearance). Offering
nothing more and certainly nothing less than what its genre conventions can
muster, "Two Weeks Notice" is a somewhat funny, mostly charming, but
always harmless way to pass the time.
Sandra Bullock plays Lucy Kelson, a hippie lawyer who
becomes the corporate counselor to breezy businessman George Wade (Huge Grant)
when George offers her employment in exchange for saving a youth center
scheduled for demolition. The thought of Lucy going to work for a corporate pig
like George is distasteful to everyone around Lucy, but Lucy reasons that by
working for George she can get him to donate vast amounts of money to her causes
and at the same time undermine the system from the inside. Or at least that's
the plan.
After a year goes by, the two begin to develop feelings for
each other. (What, you didn't see it coming?) It turns out Lucy is incapable of
keeping a boyfriend and George has accepted his role as second banana to his
brother, who is the real power behind the company. When working for the needy
and indecisive George becomes too much, Lucy gives him her two weeks notice.
Alicia Witt shows up in the second half as Lucy's potential replacement, whose
appearance prompts Lucy to confront her feelings for George, and vice versa.
There is nothing very edgy about "Two Weeks
Notice", and I'm quite sure that's what writer/director Marc Lawrence, who
has directed Bullock in two other Romantic Comedies, intended. The setting is
New York City, but the film has as much interest in delving into the world of
land development as the screenplay does for studying the effects of a hippie
lawyer going to work for a man who destroys the Earth in order to put up tall
buildings.
"Two Weeks Notice" is funny enough and its
romantic elements are, well, romantic enough to satisfy. The two leads are
attractive people and they've played these same roles many times before, and if
they're smart, they'll play these same roles many times more. Hugh Grant is
essentially playing the same part he did in "About
a Boy" and numerous others; and Sandra Bullock, who had gone off the
Romantic Comedy reservation a couple of times, jumps back on the horse without
missing a beat.
If you like Romantic Comedies, you'll like "Two Weeks
Notice".
'Nuff said.
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