Two Weeks Notice

Directed by Marc Lawrence, Two Weeks Notice follows a socially-conscious lawyer (Sandra Bullock’s Lucy) as she agrees to work for an easygoing, oblivious billionaire (Hugh Grant’s George) – with complications ensuing after George begins treating Lucy like a personal assistant. It’s a solid romcom-friendly premise that’s employed to periodically watchable yet mostly underwhelming effect by Lawrence, as the filmmaker, armed with his own screenplay, delivers an endeavor that does, for the most part, strain mightily to cultivate a fun, freewheeling atmosphere – with said efforts generally stymied by a lack of laughs and a bizarre structure that ultimately emphasizes the protagonists’ far-from-compelling arguments and disagreements. And although Bullock and Grant are as charming as ever here, Two Weeks Notice forces the pair into characters that are, more often than not, unreasonably exaggerated and larger-than-life – which, perhaps unsurprisingly, prevents the viewer from working up much interest in or enthusiasm for their inevitable pairing. The feel-good finale does, at least, ensure that the whole thing concludes on a distinctly positive note, although it’s not enough, in the end, to erase the feeling that the picture could (and should) have been so much better.

** out of ****