Susan Granger’s review of “Two Weeks Notice” (Warner Bros.)
Given the fact that Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock are accomplished comedic talents with bankable box-office appeal, it’s amazing that this romantic fantasy is so utterly lacking in charm, not to mention originality. George Wade (Grant) is an irresponsible millionaire New York real estate developer, who’s forced by his behind-the-scenes brainy brother (David Haig) to hire a savvy, Ivy League-educated Chief Counsel, as opposed to the brainless bimbos from obscure law schools that he’s favored in the past. Enter environmental advocate Lucy Kelson (Bullock) who’s passionately involved with saving the Coney Island Cultural Center. After glibly promising to save her favorite landmark, Wade hires the high-powered, fast-talking, Harvard-educated Kelson and they begin an intense, unorthodox attorney-client relationship – until his total self-absorption and unreasonable, ’round-the-clock demands give her an ulcer and she delivers two-weeks notice. Predictably, that ignites an awareness of their mutual dependence and affection for one another. Finding abysmally little to work with in writer/director Marc Lawrence’s banal script, Hugh Grant relies on his flirtatious Brit shtick but down-to-earth Sandra Bullock stumbles, particularly when she copes with a tasteless diarrhea-on-a-crowded-highway scene. In supporting roles, Alicia Witt arouses Kelson’s jealousy as an ambitious attorney, while Dana Ivey and Robert Klein lend credulity as Kelson’s left-wing activist parents. Of minor interest: this was the first film to be shot in NYC after the Sept. 11th destruction. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Two Weeks Notice” is a floundering 4, destined to be lost, and preferably forgotten, in the plethora of holiday releases.
