10 Greatest Films of Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant was born in London, in 1960 to a teacher and former soldier. He attended Oxford on a scholarship and graduated with honors with a degree in English literature. While at Oxford, he joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society and performed on stage and in a 1982 film titled Privileged. His first leading role was in Maurice (1987). Stardom arrived after the huge hit Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). He won a Golden Globe for his work in that film.
Grant has a well deserved reputation as the king of the romantic comedies. He’s been described as a “naughty Jimmy Stewart”. But, he’s shown his talent in very different types of roles and films, too, including playing a cannibal (amongst other things) in Cloud Atlas.
This week, at your local cinema, he is co-starring alongside Meryl Streep and Simon Helberg in Florence Foster Jenkins. Standing in the proximity of Meryl Streep tends to bring out the best in actors and Hugh is no exception. His performance as St. Clair Bayfield is marvelous.
10. The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995) — British eccentricity at its best is on display in this sweet story of a village desperate to prevent a surveyor from demoting their mountain to a hill.
“Yes. Yes. Now, n-now I’m going to blush, so, um, would you help me… please?” — Reginald
9. Maurice (1987) — Another Merchant-Ivory film based on a novel by E.M. Forster. Grant plays a Cambridge student whom professes his love for another male student and then panics when those feelings are reciprocated.
“I am more sorry for you than I can possibly say and I do, do beg you to resist to return on this obsession.” — Clive Durham
8. Notting Hill (1999) — This charming and funny romantic comedy managed to overcome my low tolerance of Julia Roberts. Roberts plays one of the biggest stars in the world. She tries to escape from the limelight for a moment and have a relationship with Grant’s character, a nerdy bookseller.
“I live in Notting Hill. You live in Beverly Hills. Everyone in the world knows who you are, my mother has trouble remembering my name.” — William
7. Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) — Hugh is great in this film as the charming yet smarmy Daniel Cleaver. Texan Renee Zellweger manages to be one of the few American actors to pull off a convincing British accent. Colin Firth brings his Mr. Darcy to the 21st century.
“Come on Bridget, we belong together — you, me, poor little skirt. If I can’t make it with you then I can’t make it with anyone.” — Daniel Cleaver
6. About a Boy (2002) — In this adaptation of a Nick Hornby novel, Grant plays a cad that has decided that dating single mothers will be less hassle. He hasn’t quite anticipated the effect of the presence of their children, though, and ends up being changed after bonding with one such woman’s son.
“The thing is, a person’s life is like a TV show. I was the star of The Will Show. And The Will Show wasn’t an ensemble drama. Guests came and went, but I was the regular. It came down to me and me alone. If Marcus’ mum couldn’t manage her own show, if her ratings were falling, it was sad, but that was her problem. Ultimately, the whole single mum plotline was a bit complicated for me.” — Will
5. Sirens (1994) — This erotic comedy looks at art and morality by immersing a timid vicar (Hugh Grant) and his wife (Tara Fitzgerald) into the hedonistic world of an Australian artist (Sam Neill) whose controversial work the vicar hopes to have removed from a show. Cast as three of the artist’s models are Portia de Rossi, Elle Macpherson, and Kate Fischer. The garden of eden imagery is ripe throughout the gorgeously shot film that counterposes the beauty and danger of the Australian wildlife with the beauty and danger of hedonism. It’s a very funny and very sexy film.
4. Sense and Sensibility (1995) — Emma Thompson plays Elinor (Sense) and Kate Winslet plays Marianne (Sensibility). They are sisters, struggling with their reduced position after the death of their father. They are opposites in outward nature and Emma’s skill as an actress is seen in her ability to remain in focus even though her character is withdrawn and Kate’s is flamboyant.
This is a wonderful adaptation of Jane Austen’s brilliant novel, an adaptation that just happens to have been written by Emma Thompson.
“What do you know of my heart? What do you know of anything but your own suffering. For weeks, Marianne, I’ve had this pressing on me without being at liberty to speak of it to a single creature. It was forced on me by the very person whose prior claims ruined all my hope. I have endured her exultations again and again whilst knowing myself to be divided from Edward forever. Believe me, Marianne, had I not been bound to silence I could have provided proof enough of a broken heart, even for you.” — Elinor
3. Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) — What? Andie MacDowell again? Why? But I love this movie. It’s one of those films that I saw in the cinema with no foreknowledge and walked out saying “Wow!” Mike Newell directs a great script by Richard Curtis in which we meet a large group of eclectic and eccentric people as they go from wedding to wedding to wedding to funeral to wedding. It’s the film that introduced America to Hugh Grant and unfortunately trapped the poor man into a long run of romcoms.
“Gareth used to prefer funerals to weddings. He said it was easier to get enthusiastic about a ceremony one had an outside chance of eventually being involved in.” — Matthew
2. Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) — based upon the true story of a tone deaf socialite that performed at Carnegie Hall. Meryl is, of course, perfect in the titular role, but what was a little surprising was how good Hugh Grant and Simone Helberg are in their roles.
There is a great deal of sadness in this story, but at the same time I can’t recall laughing so much in the theater, in quite a while. It would have been easy for this film to have come across as mean spirited or to render two-dimensional characters, but Meryl, Hugh, and Simon create characters with whom it is so easy to empathize.
“No mockers and no scoffers!” — St. Clair Bayfield
1. Love Actually (2003) — The film is a look at the subject of love in its many forms and a sign of its brilliance is that it can tell so many stories without losing any coherence. There is the story of the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant) that falls in love with his caterer (Martine McCutcheon), the story of the aging rocker (Bill Nighy) and his fraternal love for his manager (Gregor Fisher), the story of the young stepson of a recent widower (Liam Neeson) who has fallen in love with a classmate, the love of a tested marriage (Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman), and on and on.
One scene that involves a Joni Mitchell CD should have resulted in a best supporting actress Oscar for Emma Thompson. If you don’t feel her character’s pain, you have no heart.
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there — fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge — they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.” — the Prime Minister
Other films considered for this post include Bitter Moon, White Mischief, Restoration, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Lair of the White Worm, The Rewrite, Small Time Crooks, Music & Lyrics, and Two Weeks Notice. What would make your list?
