Four Weddings and a Funeral

Year of Release:  1994

Director:  Mike Newell

Screenplay:  Richard Curtis

Starring:  Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott Thomas, Simon Callow, James Fleet, John Hannah, Charlotte Coleman, Corin Redgrave, Rowan Atkinson

Running Time:  117 minutes

Genre:  Romantic comedy

Londoner Charles (Grant) is invited to several weddings without getting married himself, until at one wedding he meets and falls for fellow guest, American Carrie (MacDowell).  Over a number of weddings and a funeral, the couple bond but constantly seem to be kept apart.

Four Weddings and a Funeral was released to comparatively little fanfare in the summer of 1994 and became a global smash hit, ending up as the most successful British film ever made up to that point. It made a star of Hugh Grant, and crowned writer Richard Curtis (at the time best known for TV comedies such as Mr. Bean (1990-1995) and Blackadder (1983-1989)) as Britain's romcom king.  The film is set almost entirely at the weddings and the funeral of the title (presented as chapters divided by title cards designed as wedding invitations).  This gives the film an episodic feel and means that we never get to know much about Charles and his friends.  Andie MacDowell as Carrie, in particular suffers from this approach.  We only ever see her through Charles' eyes, drifting in and out of the proceedings, and she doesn't really make much of an impact, and while we are constantly told that he is in love with her, it never really feels that way.  However this is a film that is full of small, incidental pleasures.  Hugh Grant gives his definitive performance as the quintessential bumbling, polite Englishman, and John Hannah gives a powerful performance, with his moving reading of W. H. Auden's "Funeral Blues" a highlight.    This is one of the classic comedies, and while it is far from perfect, it is consistently funny with moments of real emotion.  

 Andie MacDowell and Hugh Grant attend Four Weddings and a Funeral