Romantic comedy scores generally seem to take a full blown orchestral approach, which may come across as heavy handed, but many work well with a more intimate ensemble. The more lightly scored ones leave the assorted pop songs to make most of the romance and the score just fills in the gaps; this can be most successful, George Fenton's charming score to You've Got Mail never really became that romantic, but stayed bright and breezy, while Badly Drawn Boy combined the song and score writing duties very successfully in the quirky About A Boy. For this Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant outing, John Powell, in what appears to be his first romantic comedy score, takes the low key approach with a small ensemble of keyboard instruments, guitar, drums and bass. The results are pleasant, but that's about all.
The album opens with the love theme, which is nice, but to be honest, sounds like the sort of thing I could write given half an hour doodling at the piano. The rest of the tracks alternate between a light jazziness and renditions of the love theme, the latter most effective in Helicopter Ride as it is performed on acoustic guitar with tuned percussion. The effective instrumentation works to the score's advantage, particularly the vibraphone and Hammond Organ combination as for In the Limo. As there is no orchestra, the score doesn't swell to any great moments and so we're left with a lounge jazz album that is nice enough, but far from being anything special. Unlike Fenton's similar score, Two Weeks Notice lacks any particularly great melodies or memorable quirks so while it's nice at the time, there isn't much to remember afterward.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 30:42