Two Weeks Notice (2002)

A lawyer decides that she's used too much like a nanny by her boss, so she walks out on him.

Director:

Marc Lawrence

Writer:

Marc Lawrence

Stars:

Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Alicia Witt

2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sandra Bullock	...	Lucy Kelson
Hugh Grant	...	George Wade
Alicia Witt	...	June Carver
Dana Ivey	...	Ruth Kelson
Robert Klein	...	Larry Kelson
Heather Burns	...	Meryl Brooks
David Haig	...	Howard Wade
Dorian Missick	...	Tony
Joseph Badalucco Jr.	...	Construction Foreman (as Joseph Badalucco)
Jonathan Dokuchitz	...	Tom
Veanne Cox	...	Melanie Corman
Janine LaManna	...	Elaine Cominsky
Iraida Polanco	...	Rosario
Charlotte Maier	...	Helen Wade
Katheryn Winnick	...	Tiffany

Storyline

Harvard educated lawyer Lucy Kelson, following in the footsteps of her lawyer parents, uses her career for social activism. She hides any sense of femininity behind her work. George Wade is the suave public face of the Manhattan-based Wade Corporation, a development firm that Lucy routinely opposes and whose true head is George's profit-oriented brother, Howard Wade. George, who has a reputation as a lady's man, has had as his legal counsel a series of beautiful female lawyers with questionable credentials, they who have more primarily acted as his casual sex partners. Needing a real lawyer, he offers Lucy the job of his legal counsel on a chance meeting. Despite warnings from her parents in working for the "enemy", Lucy, who has no intention of being the latest in his bed partners, accepts the job as she feels she can do more good from the inside, and as George, as part of the job offer, promises not to demolish a community center in a heritage building as part of a development ...

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Plot Keywords:

donald trump character | reference to the new york mets | reference to the san francisco giants | community center | protest | 

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Taglines:

This winter, take a second look at the one beside you.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sex-related humor

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros.

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 December 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Marc Lawrence Project

Filming Locations:

54 Greene St, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$14,328,494, 22 December 2002

Gross USA:

$93,354,851

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$199,043,242

Company Credits

Production Co:

Castle Rock Entertainment, Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Coney Island Community Center is in fact the Childs Restaurant Building that went out of business years ago. It was designated a New York City Landmark on February 4, 2003 just one month after the movie was released.

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Goofs

When Lucy and George are talking in the kitchen after the stapler fight, Lucy's hair alternates between being behind her shoulders and in front of her shoulders between shots.

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Quotes

George Wade: I own the hotel, and I live there. My life is very much like Monopoly.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the credits, a picture postcard is shown with a rendering of the Coney Island Towers project, with the community center preserved as part of the design.

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Connections

Referenced in Bad Movie Beatdown: All About Steve (2010)

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Soundtracks

Big Yellow Taxi
Written by Joni Mitchell
Performed by Counting Crows
featuring Vanessa Carlton
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Great interactions between two great natural comic actors...and a usable plot

Two Weeks Notice (2002)

Hugh Grant is funny. Sandra Bullock is funny. "Two Weeks Notice" takes full advantage of both, and for a warm, if someone canned, romantic comedy, it's enjoyable.

The premise is two-fold. First is the idea that Bullock makes herself indispensable as an assistant to an unbelievably demanding boss (an precursor of the more recent "The Devil Wears Prada" though in this case Grant is also a bit incompetent). Then she has to give notice she is quitting. This makes Grant desperate, which is always fun to watch.

The other premise is the feel-good part where a community center with history needs to be saved, somehow (an echo, perhaps, of "You've Got Mail"). Bullock is a do-gooder and a smart one, and she finds working with Grant has threatened her idealism. In fact, this is the deeper part of the movie, if still treated with typical easy going slightness. I mean, this is no serious commentary for sure, any more than "My Man Godfrey" will really change our views about unemployment in the depression. But it helps to have a cause to root for.

Most of all I came to love Bullock for her natural on-screen personality. She's so likable in her own offbeat way you come to support her view of the world automatically. And in this case that's a good thing, even if you also understand how Grant's character is both a jerk and a lovable misguided rich man. Grant of course is his own kind of natural, and the two are rather good on screen. They might not have chemistry, the way you'd want the screen to steam up, but they have energy or synergy together, more like the other Grant (Cary) and some of his counterparts did in the old days.

I'm tilting this review toward a feeling that this is a screwball comedy as in the the late 30s and early 40s, and in a way it is, though not nutty enough perhaps to really qualify. It does have the standard romantic comedy problem of two leads who would be great together if only a million things weren't standing in the way.

This movie gets weak reviews overall, but I liked it, and don't hesitate to recommend it as a thin but enjoyable comedy.