Personal Selection No. 46- Hugh Grant According to Taylor Swift
Personal Selection No. 46- Hugh Grant According to Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift songs for my favorite Hugh Grant rom-coms
Oddly enough, Paul Simon is not the only celebrity I had a weird serendipitous moment with in my dorm room in Turkey.
One January evening, Hugh Grant similarly made me pause and say, “well, what are the odds??”
It was the night before a trip to Istanbul with new friends and I decided to watch the movie “Notting Hill” on a whim. I’d never seen it before, but I’d seen “Four Weddings and a Funeral” on a plane months earlier and was interested in watching another Hugh Grant classic. In the early scenes of the movie, Julia Roberts’ character, a Hollywood star, walks into Hugh Grant’s character’s bespoke travel book shop and he proceeds to put on a charming “starstruck but trying to be normal” bit.
In fumbling to play it cool in the ethereal presence of Julia Roberts’ character (I get it), he holds up a recommendation for Turkish travel with ISTANBUL emblazoned on the cover. I paused the movie and took a picture of the screen because how many rom-coms set in London explicitly mention travel to Istanbul in a way that is irrelevant to the plot of the movie? And of all the movies I could’ve watched on the eve of my own Istanbul travel, what are the chances of me picking the one such film?
It’s perhaps not as personal and niche as my Paul Simon encounter, but the synchronicity was enough to secure Hugh Grant a special place in my heart. Sure, he’s a jaded celebrity with a bad attitude on red carpets. He’s an infamous womanizer and (probably) a certified a-hole. None of this changes the fact that he is neck and neck with Tom Hanks and Shah Rukh Khan for the coveted position of my favorite rom-com male lead.1
My love for Hugh Grant and his romantic roles was rekindled this week because of the relentless gloomy weather we had in Buffalo. On Monday, when I needed a cozy rainy day movie, I naturally reached for “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” Innocent enough, but then I couldn’t stop. I followed up “Four Weddings” with “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and then “Notting Hill.” And Tuesday? Exact same regiment. Reader, I watched these three movies in this order Monday-Friday like it was my job. When, in the same week, a coworker told accused me of having a “free spirit,” it was all I could do to not rebuttal with “Free spirit??? I have watched the same three Hugh Grant rom-coms every day this week.”
I realize this reads like a cry for help. I argue that it was just a divine sign that I needed to write about it.
In fact, even upon the first showing of “Four Weddings and Funeral” this week, I was struck by how much the plot reminded my of “Fresh Out the Slammer,” by Taylor Swift. I took to my Instagram story to declare the kinship between this movie and song. Naturally, then, as I ritually watched the other two movies (again and again), I was asking myself what Taylor Swift song best encapsulates those romantic arcs.
My association between Swift and these particular movies wasn’t pre-meditated. However, upon examination, the connection seems appropriate, given her history with London heartbreaks and lyrically fetishizing herself as a kind of American fantasy.2 Likewise, two of these three movies feature an American girl who carries some exotic interest for Hugh Grant’s character. Even in the case of “Bridget Jones,” a British woman is still played by an American actor, so some air of transcontinental romance persists.
After hours of living in London with Hugh Grant in his various shades of lover-boy/villain behavior from my cubicle this week and a lifetime of blasting Taylor Swift, these are the pairings I landed on:
Four Weddings and a Funeral & Fresh Out the Slammer
Compare “Four Weddings and a Funeral” to “Sleepless in Seattle” to understand the difference between an American and a British rom-com. Both have themes of “right person, wrong time,” and “practicality vs. passion,” but the humor of the British rom-com is noticeably darker and more cynical. In this movie (and across British rom-coms) there is an acknowledgment, even a validation, of lust in a way that is unheard of between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan’s love stories. In “When Harry Met Sally,” comparably an edgier American blockbuster rom-com, the accidental hookup is practically the villain of the film, nearly breaking the two up irrevocably.
In contrast, in “Four Weddings,” we have Andie MacDowell’s character listing off her body count with nostalgia while Hugh Grant listens to her with stars in his eyes. The movie ends with the two agreeing to “never get married,” alluding to them wanting to be together while accepting their mutual allergy to commitment. This is unheard of in spar-spangled rom-coms, when we all but assume that the rolling end credits will feature our leading lady in white.
Another un-American aspect of “Four Weddings” is its theme of charming infidelity. Hugh Grant leaves his bride at the altar, Andie MacDowall cheats on her fiance, and yet we are still asked to root for these two (bad?) people to end up with each other. And I do, gladly. Nobody writes pop songs about being a cheater like Taylor Allison Swift, “Fresh Out the Slammer” chief among them. It’s more about emotional cheating, about pining for someone while feeling trapped in a relationship and then at last being free to chase after them, which makes it such a fresh and unique story in pop music.
Initially, this was one of my least favorite songs from The Tortured Poets Department because of its lack luster chorus. I still don’t like the chorus, but the slow-motion running feeling of the verses and bridge redeem it for me, a reliable sucker for a song with a cinematic effect. The melodrama of it all has made this song quickly work its way up to one of the most streamed from the album.
Did this song come to mind while watching this movie because the plot lines are so similar, or solely because of the line in the song “to the one who says I’m the girl of his American dream,” since Andie MacDowell plays such a perfect mysterious-American-woman? Who’s to say? Regardless, these two pieces of media are so wonderfully compatible.
Notting Hill & Peace
As someone who is painfully aware of my para-social tendencies, “Notting Hill” is a fascinating exploration of the cost of fame and how we civilian non-celebs can commodify the lives of the rich and famous. It asks these interesting questions that seem even more relevant now than when this movie came out over 20 years ago, but ultimately satisfies audiences with a happy, albeit implausible, romantic ending for our half-famous couple. The central question, “can they make it work?”, is left up to us to answer when it comes to real-life celebrities and the sacrifices they make to appease the spotlight, but the answer is a resounding “YES, YAY!!” for this fictional couple.
Taylor Swift has several interesting songs about being a famous person, all cleverly written in a way that might be interpreted as applicable to more situations than just her own, relatively unique one. “Peace,” is a great example of this. In the Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions live performances/documentary, Swift talks about how this song was inspired by her struggle to make space for an intimate relationship in her very public-facing life. Aaron Dessner, one of the collaborators on the album, then says how the song is also about the struggle of being in a relationship with someone else while you are personally dealing with your own mental health issues. There is a meaning that might not resonate with people who aren’t global pop-stars, but simultaneously an angle that is highly relatable.
It’s the pop-star side of this song that could make it a theme song for Julia Roberts’ Hollywood it-girl character in “Notting Hill.” If this was a musical, this would be her top-of-the-third-act ballad. The whole movie is basically her asking Hugh Grant’s character the refrain of the song:
"Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?"
Bridget Jones’ Diary & Daylight
This was a tough one because there are a few elements to possibly highlight in this movie that are compatible with different parts of Taylor Swift’s discography. The self-loathing, frazzled woman. The toxic situationship. The revenge-fueled self-improvement. I could find Swift songs for all of these.
But, in discerning a direction to take, it’s important to keep in mind that it is a re-telling of Pride and Prejudice, and thus a story of two people learning to accept the love that’s actually good for them. Hugh Grant’s character represents the worst kind of guy that Bridget Jones typically falls for: a sexy and unreliable womanizer who knows how to turn her on and break her heart in one breath. Bridget finally coming to the realization that this kind of companionship-of-convenience isn’t what she wants, and telling a snow-covered Hugh Grant as much, is such a cathartic scene.
On the other hand, our Mr. Darcy played by a baby-faced Colin Firth is presented immediately as annoying and boring, but ultimately likes Bridget “just the way” she is. What an idea!
Likewise, “Daylight” is a beautiful love song about realizing that the right relationship isn’t one that’s turbulent and crazy-making. Or, as Taylor puts it,
"I once believed love would be burning red, but it's golden."
And yeah, Hugh Grant’s devastating eyebrow scrunches are obviously burning red and Colin Firth’s earnest stares golden.
I know what you’re thinking- “MADELYN, WHAT ABOUT LOVE ACTUALLY?” Here is where I confess that I’ve never seen it. I know, I know. In my defense, I understand it as a Christmas movie, and I never remember it exists during the appropriate season. That changes this year! If it, too, inspires song recommendations, I promise you’ll be the first to know.
Would love to know who you think would win a fight between these three legends.
This is not an indictment of this trope; I’m on record as enjoying using “American” as a flirty little label in song.