Mark Notting Hill (1999) as another film familiar to many that I had yet to see until recently.  If you think it has anything to do with stereotypical male behavior, so often (unfortunately) conflated with how society perceives Christian men to act, then you would be mistaken.  It is a romantic comedy, though probably heavier on the former of those words than the latter.  I am fine with such an emphasis, and I prize a good story over what is supposedly expected by other members of my sex.  I am speaking of preferring a movie like this one over many action flicks, to put a finer point on it.  What makes this one stand out is my penchant for watching it from a Catholic perspective.  It is about love, and the male protagonist, William “Will” Thacker (Hugh Grant) pretty well approximates how God wants us to reflect that love.  Keep this in mind as I discuss the plot, and I will draw this theme out further before I conclude.

In case you are wondering, Notting Hill is an actual area of London, and Will is walking through it on his way to his struggling travel book store.  His personal life has also not been the most successful, his first wife having left him.  Still, he maintains that cheerful stiff upper lip so common among Grant’s characters in other films as he eases into another day at the shop.  This, however, is not to be any other day.  Walking among his stacks is Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), a famous Hollywood actress we met during the opening credits.  He does his best to not let on that he recognizes her, and she seems to appreciate his candor.  You may be surprised to know that fawning is not Christ-like.  Not long thereafter, they have another run-in on the street, this time resulting in him spilling orange juice all over her shirt.  Since they are near his flat, which he shares with his bizarre roommate Spike (Rhys Ifans), Will braves offering her his home to change into fresh clothing.  After refusing a number of other offers of refreshment, she kisses him and leaves.  Some days pass before Spike gets around to telling Will that she had called their place and left a message.  It comes with an invitation to come to the Ritz Carlton where she is staying while promoting her new movie, though to keep things secret for the moment, he is forced to pose as a journalist and ask questions about a production he has not seen.  When they are alone, the chemistry between them is still evident, though there is the awkwardness of the secrecy.  Before he can leave, she volunteers to tag along to his sister’s, Honey Thacker (Emma Chambers), birthday dinner as his date.  There are a number of people at this party, all of whom are not expecting a celebrity to be in attendance, but who treat her with warm hospitality once the shock goes away.  He walks her back to the hotel afterwards, and they have a date the next night.  They are about to go up to her room to do the kinds of things that adults too often do in movies when they are unexpectedly greeted by Jeff King (Alec Baldwin), Anna’s boyfriend.  She attempts to pass him off as a butler, but privately tries to explain her uncertain status with Jeff, and Will takes it all with a saint-like patience.  Still, it does mean that what Will thought might have been the beginning of something good abruptly ends.  His family and friends all try to cheer him up by setting him up with other women, but none seem to do the job, including the last of them who is “nearly perfect” in his words.  Indeed, he might have moved on had it not been for Anna appearing unannounced at his doorstep.  Instead of taking umbrage over the earlier slight, he shows her the kind of compassion God would want of us and offers her shelter.  She is in need of some anonymity in the wake of nude images of her surfacing in the paparazzi.  They also pick up where they left off romantically, this time doing what they had been prevented from doing the last time they saw each other.  The person that ruins everything this time is Spike.  In his excitement over having a famous person in his home, he tells a few people at the local pub.  The next morning, Will opens his front door to a small army of press outside, which perturbs Anna.  She accuses Will of wanting to get a moment in the limelight, even though it was clearly Spike’s doing, and angrily leaves saying that this had all been a mistake.  Once more, Will is crushed, and we are shown a montage of him getting through the next six months seemingly processing his grief.  Still, not long after telling his family and friends that he is finally ready to move on, one of his best mates, Max (Tim McInnerny), shows him a newspaper announcing Anna shooting a film in London.  He goes to the set and a startled Anna spots him, telling him to wait until they wrap for the day so they can talk.  Yet, over a set of headphones given him so he can hear the dialog, she tells the other actor in the scene with her that Will is just a man she knows.  With that, he leaves, but she later shows up at his shop.  In presenting him a painting that had discussed on one of their dates, she expresses her love for him, desiring that they be together.  However, he tells her that his heart cannot take another let down, and refuses her.  Later, once more consulting his family and friends, he realizes that he has made a mistake.  Max loads them all into his car and they make it to her press conference.  Again posing as a magazine writer, Will is able to get into the crowd and convince her of the wrongness of his decision.  Finally, if the concluding montage is any indication, they live happily ever after.

How many of us would behave like Will does in Notting Hill, particularly when we have been wronged by a person and our chance of that “happily ever after” is in serious doubt?  It is difficult to say, but the Bible does provide some clear insight into these notions.  What I am specifically talking about here is forgiveness.  Clearly, Will is the aggrieved person, and any one of us would understand if he never had anything to do with Ann for the rest of his life.  In Matthew 18:22, Jesus gives us the number seventy-seven as the amount of times we should accept the apologies of those who have wronged us.  That is not to say that once somebody has reached that number, you can then stop forgiving them.  The number seven is theologically significant, denoting completeness.  As such, seventy-seven basically means infinite.  It matches with God’s love for us, which is also infinite.  Now, Will only does this three times, but I am guessing that, for some, that would be two, perhaps even three, more than we would give.  Another thing to say about forgiveness is that it does not have to look as it does in the movie.  You can reconcile with another in your heart, even if that does not mean you ever speak to that person ever again.  God sees our hearts and knows, and that is enough.  Indeed, making amends interiorly is a major component of healing for ourselves, arguably more important than actually saying sorry.  You can see Will go through this process in the movie, even if he does not think about it in spiritual terms.  One can posit that he is not healed when he learns of Anna being in London the third time, particularly when he is once more seemingly rebuffed.  What he does have is the blessing of time, which grants perspective, and he is right to say what he does in the last scene in the book store.  As I have already indicated, forgiveness does not always mean a relationship looking the same way as it once had been.  What God wants is you and what is inside of you.  Everything else is secondary.

I am glad I finally got around to Notting Hill.  There are not too many movies that are set in London that give me zero enjoyment.  It is Will, though, that makes the film.  He exemplifies so much of what I have come to understand about how God wants us to behave towards our fellows.  There are a few adult situations, but otherwise I would recommend this one.