Two Weeks Notice

Two Weeks Notice
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Marc Lawrence
Produced by Sandra Bullock
Written by Marc Lawrence
Starring Hugh Grant
Sandra Bullock
Alicia Witt
Dana Ivey
Robert Klein
Heather Burns
Donald Trump
Music by John Powell
Cinematography László Kovács
Edited by Susan E. Morse
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • December 18, 2002 (2002-12-18) (United States)
Running time
 101 minutes
Country
  • United States


Language English
Budget $60 million[1]
Box office $200 million[1]

Two Weeks Notice is a 2002 American romantic comedy film starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock. The film was written and directed by Marc Lawrence, who had previously scripted two other box-office hits for Bullock, Miss Congeniality and Forces of Nature.[2] 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.

When 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, and he decides to keep the promise he made to her in the beginning even if it means it costs his company millions. Meanwhile, in her new job, Lucy is missing him terribly. He goes in search for her, and they confess their feelings for each other. The movie ends with Lucy ordering take out in her apartment with George making jokes about the size of the apartment. Usually when she orders and is asked how many, Lucy replies, "one", but this time, with a silly smile, Lucy replies, "This is for two."

Cast

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.[1]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack music to Two Weeks Notice was released on 28 January 2003.[3]

No.TitleArtistLength
1."Love Theme"John Powell1:38
2."Divorce"John Powell1:24
3."Take Away"John Powell2:41
4."Trying to Get Fired"John Powell1:31
5."Helicopter Ride"John Powell2:31
6."In the Limo"John Powell0:51
7."Bobcat Pretzel"John Powell3:15
8."Protest"John Powell1:26
9."Interviews"John Powell0:44
10."Emergency"John Powell1:40
11."Absolutely Beautiful"John Powell2:41
12."Sad Bowels"John Powell2:51
13."George's Speech"John Powell2:44
14."Finale"John Powell3:41
15."Epilogue"John Powell0:41
Total length:30:19[4]

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.[5][6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Two Weeks Notice (2002). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 17, 2010
  2. ↑ "Two Weeks Notice (2002) - Marc Lawrence - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  3. ↑ Two Weeks Notice Soundtrack release date TheOST. Retrieved 28 January 2014
  4. ↑ Two Weeks Notice Soundtrack length TheOST. Retrieved 28 January 2014
  5. ↑ "'Eats, Shoots, & Leaves' - New York Times". Web.archive.org. 3 April 2015. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  6. ↑ "Reviews: Eats, Shoots and Leaves". Archived from the original on 25 December 2003. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
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