Lucy Kelson: You are the most selfish human being on the planet!
George Wade: Well that's just silly. Have you met everyone on the planet?

Lucy Kelson (Sandra Bullock: Speed, Miss Congenality) is an out of work attorney who stages protests on her free time as a liberal. She approaches aristocrat George Wade (Hugh Grant: About a Boy, Love Actually) begging him not to tear down a local community center. He becomes instantly impressed with her and hires her as his assistant. She agrees reluctantly but has no idea what she's in for. Soon the two begin to realize that their partnership has gone beyond the workplace and realize they may have feelings for one another.
        I tell you, there are only a few things that saved this film from a complete pan, the first being Marc Lawrence's witty and wry writing for the film. I can't remember chuckling so loud at the great writing so present in the film. Like a modern version of "His Girl Friday", the dialogue is almost rapid fire and it's almost impossible to laugh without missing another witty comeback from a character. Lawrence helps save this story with many great lines from everyone in the film and a down to earth array of characters that don't attempt to overplay their parts. These are characters that manage to gain our respect and emotion involving us in their current state of the story. What helps to save the film as well are the top shelf performances from Sandra Bullock and that of Hugh Grant who gives a charming and hilarious performance as George Wade. Grant is given the best lines in the film stealing the show from the rest of the cast including Bullock. He delivers deadpan reaction to an almost unlimited array of witty and droll one liners that save the film from being a complete farce. He gives the same charming persona he gave in many of his other charmers including "About a Boy". Bullock is as adorable as she always is and acts well off of Grant; they have great chemistry together and make this an entertaining tale to watch.

Ah, the romantic comedy, the bane of cinema. There have been hundreds of romantic comedies released over the years from the excellent (An Affair to Remember, Annie Hall, Barefoot in the Pak), to the average (Wedding Planner), to the utterly awful (Maid in Manhattan), romantic comedies are a staple of cinema that will never go away. Hugh Grant has made a basic career of starring in romantic comedies, and regardless of how he manages to save the film, this can't withstand the utter pits of romantic comedy trash. The film presents your usual cliché, and utterly predictable storyline and sentiment that is evident right at the beginning of the film. I still can't understand why director Marc Lawrence felt it was important to include a photo montage of the two lead actors right at the opening credits. It seems like a desperate attempt to tug at audiences heartstrings immediately, making it feel tried as if we're in for something utterly terrible.
        The storyline is completely predictable and becomes an inevitable cookie cutter romantic comedy. There's your usual generic tale of a girl who's either lonely or anti-social, who by some odd event, gets involved with a suave upper class man, the two either don't like each other, or take time to cozy with one another, something happens when they realize they love each other, an obstacle enters the scene in the form of a person, and in the end love conquers all. Ho-Hum. But the film tends to handle it well up until the point where it reaches desperation resorting to unnecessary bathroom humor and physical comedy. There's this inane segment involving tennis and a character being bludgeoned by a tennis ball, and then there's a tacked on sequence involving Bullock's character having to go to the bathroom.
        While she's suffering, the traffic comes to a stand still blocking their escape and Grant's character carries Bullock to an RV conveniently placed on the road. What makes this worse an experience is that the director feels it necessary to place black blotches on Bullock's butt showing waste stains, and then finishes the miserable sequence with sounds of her moaning aloud to a spastic disposal of bodily wastes. Wow, were they stretching for the comedy, and it failed to work because all it managed to invoke from me were expressions of disgust rather than a genuine laugh.
        The beautiful Alicia Witt (Urban Legend) is wasted in the film with a character that feels completely tacked on and completely awkward within the storyline and characters. She's the obligatory villain in the film providing an obstacle for the potential love reunion between the two title characters, but all her scenes feel so generic within the film, and she unfortunately feels out of place. The ending relies on a pure approach of sap with the ending of the two characters re-uniting, blah, blah. I just thank goodness that there wasn't a scene involving the two kissing while a crowd looks on cheering. Gag me.

This is a very flawed, predictable, and cliché romantic comedy but redeems itself with great performances by Grant and Bullock who give great chemistry onscreen with witty writing.

• Scenes for the movie were shot at Shea Stadium on May 9, 2002. Between innings of the Giants/Mets game, the crowd was filmed booing. Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock attended the game and shot a scene with Mike Piazza of the Mets after the game.
• Mark Feuerstein (Good Morning, Miami), who is listed in the credits, had all his scenes cut from the final cut of the movie, although you can see part of his head during the wedding scene as Sandra Bullock's character leaves the church.
• The original intention was to shoot the movie in Canada (because it's less expensive), but Sandra Bullock replied, "You can't shoot a movie about New York city not in New York City."

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