We’re all couped up in our homes in social isolation or quarantine, nowhere to go, not much to do. Luckily there is plenty to watch, right at our fingertips. I have just the thing to kill a few hours and take your mind off things while you live in social exile: the Julia Roberts Romantic Comedy Trilogy. Just several hours of Julia Roberts at the peak of her powers and at her most charming, a little mental comfort food for these strange times.
First up is Julia’s immortal star making turn in Pretty Woman. She had been in movies before this, but this is the one where she announces her arrival, with that 1000 watt smile, that wonderful laugh and magnetic charisma. She plays Vivian Ward, a prostitute with a heart of gold who is hired by Edward Lewis, a very successful businessman, who hires her to keep him company for a week while he is in town for work. Their chemistry is fantastic, with Gere pulling back and underplaying it a little, in full recognition that this is Julia’s show and that he shouldn’t get in her way. The movie by and large dodges the landmine of Vivian’s profession as a prostitute by allowing Julia’s charm and innocence to shine through in Vivian. Though her profession is illegal and questionable, Vivian is by far the more innocent of the two, with Edward’s business dealings leaving plenty of victims in his wake. This is the full blown classic formulaic romantic comedy of the three, where Julia is just plain charming, lovable and charismatic.
After a brief intermission, we get to the second movie in the Julia Roberts romantic comedy trilogy, My Best Friend’s Wedding. This one has a lot of fun subverting the traditional expectations of the romantic comedy. Julia gets to explore her dark side a little in this outing, and while the movie is told from her perspective, she is ultimately the villain of the story. Julia plays Julianne Potter, a food critic who finds out her best friend Michael O’Neal, played by Dermot Mulroney, is getting married. They had dated years before briefly and decided to stay best friends when she dumped him. They also had a pact to marry each other if they were both still unmarried at 30. So when Julianne finds out Michael is getting married on the weekend and wants her to be in the wedding party, she is determined to attend and try to break up the wedding and steal him back. Julia’s charm shines through here too because she brings us along for the ride and kind of gets us to root for her, even when she’s doing unspeakable things to try to break up the wedding. In the traditional romantic comedy, you’re meant to want the lead to end up with the girl or the guy they are after, that’s the payoff of the whole story. But in My Best Friend’s Wedding, Julianne is a shallow narcissist who is more concerned with not losing Michael than actually ending up with him. He was still in love with her all the years they were friends, if she actually wanted to end up with him, she could have done so at any time, but when he’s going to marry another woman, Julianne is driven much more by jealousy than any kind of real love. And yet, the movie star Julia Roberts is charismatic enough to bring a humanity to the character and make us like her, even if we don’t think she should get the guy at the end.
Perhaps after a slightly longer intermission to grab some snacks and refill your beverages, we return to complete the Julia Roberts Romantic Comedy Trilogy with the final movie: Notting Hill. Notting Hill is the perfect movie to round out the trilogy as it takes a little bit of Julia’s performances from each of the previous movies while adding a little extra ingredient of its own. This time around Julia plays Anna Scott, a world famous movie star in town to promote her latest film. Anna meets William Thacker, played by Hugh Grant, in his bookstore while she is hiding away from the paparazzi and public. They have an instant and easy chemistry, but their romance is interrupted by Anna’s status as a movie star and a celebrity. When they are alone and Anna is able to be herself with William, Julia plays her as warm, funny, charming and vulnerable all at once. But when the paparazzi, public or her people are around she becomes colder and more distant as a means of protecting herself and what she thinks everyone’s expectations of her are. This movie feels like a commentary on celebrity and being a movie star and feels like Julia is drawing from her own experience, and maybe to a certain degree, playing aspects of herself. It’s also a peak behind the curtain that fame and celebrity are probably much more of a burden than any of us realize.
With all this social isolation and quarantine business going on in the world, and the social exile we all seem to find ourselves in, what better way to unwind and forget some of your cares for a few hours than to have a mini Julia Roberts romantic comedy marathon. Each movie brings something different to the table and shows off a different side of Julia. Pretty Woman introduced us to the charming charismatic movie star Julia. My Best Friends Wedding let her be go a little darker and be as much of a villain as the romantic comedy genre would permit, while still being magnetic enough for us to kind of like her. And Notting Hill let her be vulnerable and human, then guarded and cold, all while reckoning with what it means to be a celebrity and movie star. I invite you to spend a few hours with Julia Roberts and forget some of your worries.