Two Weeks Notice

Two Weeks Notice is a 2002 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Marc Lawrence and starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock. Although critical response was mixed, the film was successful at the box office.

Plot


Lucy Kelson (Sandra Bullock) is a frumpy, nervous, intelligent liberal lawyer who specializes in historic preservation, environmental law and pro bono causes in New York City. George Wade (Hugh Grant) is an arrogant, billionaire real estate developer and stylish womanizing playboy, who is also quite naive. Lucy's hard work and devotion to others contrast sharply with George's world-weary recklessness and greed.

Lucy meets George in an attempt to stop the destruction of the Coney Island community center from her childhood. Discovering that she graduated from prestigious Harvard law school, he attempts to hire her to replace his old Chief Counsel, overlooking their opposing views of real estate development. She is willing to overlook it too—and his playboy tendencies—when he lures her in with the promise to protect the community center and an annual salary of $250,000 and other perks.

She soon finds that what he really requires is advice in all aspects of his life. She becomes his indispensable aide, and he calls her for every little thing at all hours. At a friend's wedding, her cell phone loudly rings and disrupts the proceedings before she runs off answering his urgent page. When she discovers the "emergency" is he needs her advice on what to wear to an important event, she gets fed up and gives him her two weeks' notice of resignation. Yet, her departure is not so easy.

Lucy looks for work at other firms, but every one says no because George has called in advance asking them not to hire her, so that he can keep her on. Eventually he gives in, and she offers to help him find a replacement, but the camera shows us that they are not entirely aware of how close and interdependent they have become: they act like an old married couple at a restaurant, able to simultaneously carry out a conversation while involuntarily exchanging food out of habit from knowing each other's food preferences.

When the stylish and flirtatious June Carver (Alicia Witt) shows up without an appointment seeking the position, Lucy speaks to her, but is concerned that June lacks real estate experience. When George sees June he is immediately attracted and is ready to hire her on the spot, with little regard for Lucy's concerns. Rather than look the other way and let her soon-to-be-former boss deal with the foolishness of his sexist hiring practices, Lucy instead becomes increasingly jealous and competitive with her replacement. When George invites June to be included to business social events that formerly would be just between George and Lucy, Lucy increasingly perceives the business events to be more like dates, and is angry that June is intruding on them.

Lucy finds out that despite his promise, the community center is going to be knocked down and argues with George. She arrives at his hotel and finds June and George in his apartment in lingerie during a game of "strip chess". George sees that Lucy is hurt as she leaves. He confronts her the next day, her last day, saying that she must have feelings from what she saw the other night. Lucy, still upset about the community center, reminds him that he promised her to spare the community center and that she didn't promise to sleep with him. George and Lucy have an argument after June and Lucy fight over a stapler. The argument ends when Lucy leaves after George tells her that she is a saint, making everyone else look bad because they are humans who make mistakes.

After she's gone, George realizes that his time with her has really changed him. Meanwhile, in her new job, Lucy is missing him terribly. He goes in search for her and reveals he decided to keep his promise to her. Lucy rebuffs him but then chases after him and they declare their feelings. George reveals he resigned.

Cast

 * Hugh Grant as George Wade
 * Sandra Bullock as Lucy Kelson
 * Alicia Witt as June Carver
 * Francie Swift as Lauren Wade
 * Dana Ivey as Ruth Kelson
 * Robert Klein as Larry Kelson
 * Jason Antoon as Norman
 * Heather Burns as Meryl Brooks
 * David Haig as Howard Wade
 * Dorian Missick as Tony
 * Joseph Badalucco Jr. as Joseph Badalucco
 * Jonathan Dokuchitz as Tom Brooks
 * Sharon Wilkins as Polly St. Clair
 * Bill Bowers as Mime
 * Veanne Cox as Melanie Corman
 * Janine LaManna as Elaine Cominsky
 * Iraida Polanco as Rosario
 * Charlotte Maier as Helen Wade
 * Katheryn Winnick as Tiffany
 * Donald Trump as himself
 * Norah Jones as herself
 * Mike Piazza as himself

Reception
Two Weeks Notice received mixed reviews from critics. It holds a rating of 42% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 121 reviews.

Box office
The film opened at No. 2 at the U.S. Box office, raking in USD14,328,494 in its opening weekend, behind The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It had a total domestic gross of $93,354,851 and an overall gross of $199,043,242.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack music to Two Weeks Notice was released on 28 January 2003.

Punctuation issue
In the best-selling book on punctuation Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, the author Lynne Truss points out that the spelling of the film's title is grammatically incorrect because it is missing an apostrophe (Two Weeks' Notice). The book's original hardcover edition featured Truss in her author's photo, glaring at the poster and holding a marker where the apostrophe should be.