Review of Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) by Spangle — 08 Mar 2017

Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1994, Four Weddings and a Funeral is a charming little crowd pleaser that may have been instinctively nominated for the award as a romantic British film. What ensues, however, is a film that does not really feel like any other nominee from this era. It is a small scale romantic comedy about a bachelor who comes to find love in a cliched downpour after experiencing four weddings and a funeral over the course of two hours. Frightfully British, Four Weddings and a Funeral is a fine film that, while perhaps not Best Picture good, is a truly funny and charming little film with a typically charismatic Hugh Grant in the lead role opposite Andie Macdowell. The weirdest part of this movie though is the revelation that MacDowell's character has slept with 33 men, whereas Grant's has only slept with nine. Maybe I just think Macdowell looks innocent or something, but there is no way Hugh Grant has slept with less people than her. There are not many people who have slept with more, I would wager. As a side note, I just discovered that Grant had four children between 2011 and 2015. The interesting part is that it was with two women. One, a Chinese woman gave birth in 2011 and 2013. The other, a Swedish woman, gave birth in 2012 and 2015. Having discovered this bit after having written the bit about wagering he slept with more people than most can claim, I now feel even more confident about this bet.

That said, focusing on the film, Four Weddings and a Funeral is a truly enjoyable experience. Fast, witty, and smart, the film is not merely some disposable comedy. Instead, it goes to great lengths to subtly develop its characters. By focusing on the weddings and the funeral, the character development can slide by undetected. But, it is absolutely there and quite abundant. Through these encounters, the film explores friendship and mortality. With each passing wedding, these single characters feel time ticking, but find joy in their group of friends. The shared experience and bond with one another is readily apparent and worn on their sleeves throughout, particularly when one of the group gets married. Offering their congratulations, but equally expressing their hope that they will stay in touch, you feel the hopelessness of that request. Through no fault of their own, marriage will cause strain on friendships. People you loved will fall to the side purely because of time limits or distance. It is like every major moment in your life - graduating high school, graduating college, moving, getting a job, getting married, etc - where things change and people move on to new things. In the process, people close to you are left behind. Thus, the film becomes quite somber as you recognize that the love felt in the romance is simultaneously the happy couple spending their last hurrah with their old group of friends, some of whom they will never share the same connection with again.

Romantically, the film does not click nearly as well. It is a film that focuses on missed connections through unrequited love or the one you love marrying someone else. Yet, it lacks the guts to subvert expectations. Instead, it relies upon a cheesy sequence in the rain that is lazily written and oddly acted by Grant and Macdowell to close out this film. While undeniably cute, it does not jive well with the rest of the film and instead feels too neat to truly work for this film. While I am hardly arguing that the film is transcendent or not cliche up to that point, it does feel a little odd for a film to end so happy when it portrays every other issue that pops up as merely something we must deal with in life. There is no perfect person, deaths happen, unrequited love is real, and missed connections happen due to circumstance. Sadly, it lacks the courage to punch the audience in the gut by having Charles (Hugh Grant) just marry the girl he does not love because it is what he feels he must do, regardless of love. Sadly, it is a largely safe and entirely palatable romantic comedy, so expectations are not subverted here.

Charming and witty with tremendous comedic dialogue, Four Weddings and a Funeral feels like a comedy drama tricked into playing up to romantic comedy expectations, even if its first two acts seem to be leading up to an entirely different film. That said, it is a fun film and a pretty odd Best Picture nominee. Featuring a slickly charismatic turn from Hugh Grant in the lead role alongside a game supporting cast, the film is terrific for laughs and an equally great look at friendship as one ages and begins going to weddings and funerals on a regular basis. While gooey and cheesy, it is undeniably great fun to watch unfold.