# Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

### reviewed by
Mark R. Leeper

                            FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL
                          A film review by Mark R. Leeper
                           Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper

              Capsule review:  FOUR        WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL has humor,
         good dialogue, people the audience        cares about, all to tell a
         story with        just a wisp of a plot.        With a genuine plot this
         could have        been a film really worth seeing.  Rating: +1 (-4
         to        +4)

         There is a        lot of truth in        advertising in the title of the        British
    comedy FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL.  This is a film that is about 80%
    happiness and 20% pain.         Hugh Grant plays Charles, a bachelor who tells
    himself        that he        is looking for a wife but is too indecisive and        unwilling to
    commit to any one woman.  So he        goes to        wedding        after wedding getting
    increasingly desperate and frustrated.        One after another marriage picks off
    members        of Charles's group of close-knit friends.  The group is        centered
    around the flamboyant Garath, played superbly by Simon Callow.        Both the
    character and the actor        are incorrigible scene stealers, upstaging everybody
    else in        sight.        Charles        has flitted from woman to woman        without        ever
    deciding on one.  The only woman really        close to him is        Scarlett who is
    either a sister        or a fraternal friend and housemate.  However Charles's
    latest interest        is in a        visiting American, Carrie (Andie MacDowell) who
    seems to be going to the same weddings.         Charles finds Carrie very
    attractive--and        is often tongue-tied in        her presence--and almost would be
    willing        to commit to her.  The two exchange intimacies of various kinds        but
    neither        can really decide to marry the other.

         This film is a portrait of        Charles        and as with many painted portraits,
    most of        the interest is        in the background.  Charles's friends may well have
    more interesting stories to tell than Charles does.  The film lets you do
    some jigsaw puzzle work        to piece together the stories of some of the
    friends.  The script was written by Richard Curtis, one        of the founding
    forces of British TV's "Black Adder" series.  Here his writing combines        the
    slapstick of that show's style with more subtle        personal drama.         Everybody's
    worst nightmares about just what could go wrong        at a wedding combine with
    visual gags, dialogue gags, and        even subtitle gags.  Hugh Grant        is boyish
    and pleasant enough but        not always believable as Charles.  He is the current
    holder of the Anthony Hopkins Ubiquity Award for simultaneously        being in
    this film, in SIRENS, and in Roman Polanski's BITTER MOON.  (Of        course some
    of us will remember him        best as        a gay Cantabrigian in MAURICE or a kilted
    Scot in        LAIR OF        THE WHITE WORM.)  Ironically, Andie MacDowell is central to
    the story without having much of a role        except to look attractive.
    Scarlett, the sister or        whatever, is actually a        more intriguing        role than is
    Carrie.         But the plum role, of course, is Garath, whose        boisterous love        of
    life makes him the focal point of so much of the film.

         This is a decidedly lightweight film but well made        and one        that has
    occasionally very funny        gags.        I would        give it        a +1 on        the -4 to +4 scale.

                                            Mark R. Leeper
                                            att!mtgzfs3!leeper
                                            leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com

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