Movie 666

By Dr. Theodore Mangrove

Liberal chick converts capitalist pig Two Weeks Notice

It was with much trepidation that I sat down with my wife to watch Two Weeks Notice. Here, I thought, was going to be another formulaic romantic comedy, with Sandra Bullock being her wacky and sarcastic self, and Hugh Grant being his witty and huggable self.

For the first hour or so, the film met my expectations of banality. Bullock plays a liberal lawyer who unwittingly takes a job with a huge corporation against her better conscience, and Grant plays the president of the corporation. It’s the classic “opposite personalities fall in love” premise of so many romantic comedies, proving once again that Hollywood just loves to beat a dead horse over and over and over again. The only pleasure to be wrought from this film was in the performances of Bullock and Grant, and considering they’re just doing their schtick which they do in virtually all of their films, it didn’t rank very high on the entertainment meter.

I began to feel distinctly uncomfortable as the film neared the climax, and I realized that I was fearing a similar outcome to the Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks movie You’ve Got Mail in which Hanks completely destroys Ryan’s life, yet she falls for him anyway. It was less a romantic comedy and more a capitalist horror movie.

But then, the climax arrived, and gave me a delightful smack upside the head. Grant promised Bullock that he would save a community center, but then Bullock finds out that he went back on his word and is planning on razing the building in order to erect a much more profitable high-rise structure. She quits her job in retaliation, and we are left expecting Grant to go through with his plan, because if he doesn’t then he will lose his job. But at the unveiling of the development project, Grant announces to the media that he does indeed care about the community center, and the high-rise has been canceled. In the end, he finds Bullock working for a non-profit organization, and he tells her about what he’s done.

Grant’s character was a shallow, wealthy, and powerful corporate leader who threw it all away in order to do the right thing. In spite of who he was, he reveals that he has a conscience, and he becomes a man seeking redemption. Bullock’s character, a woman who is liberal, intellectual, conscientious, and politically-active is the beacon of light who leads him to redemption. In the end, the film serves up quite a radical message to mainstream America, for it is challenging the very foundations of capitalism and the American dream. It asserts that the accumulation of financial wealth and the perpetual expansion of industry are not ideals that lead to happiness. It advocates quitting your corporate job, not just because you don’t like your job, but maybe because your employer (or perhaps the entire industry you work in) is unethical or immoral.

I wonder if the significance of this radical message is lost to the average American audience within the insipidness of the romantic comedy formula. Perhaps, even subconsciously, the message is being planted in the minds of viewers. While it is hidden within this bromidic genre, the message is anything but subtle.

Related posts:

1. It’s Nothing Personal: You’ve Got Mail
2. Self Destruction and Self-Promotion: Corporate Branding in Recent Cinema
3. Special Delivery for Robinson Crusoe: Dreamworks Sells out Cinema with FedEx Corporate Love Song
4. 80s Flashback: Water
5. The Birdgit Jones Basketball Diaries

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