FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott Thomas, Simon Callow, James Fleet, Charlotte Coleman. Screenplay: Richard Curtis. Director: Mike Newell.
Where romantic comedy is concerned, I am a tough sell. Too many of them seem to put across the impression that all you need to do is put two people on the screen and have them end up together, regardless of whether or not they are developed with an interesting conflict (or even speak to one another, as in the monstrously overhyped SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE). I'm not going to turn into a pile of goo every time I see a screen kiss, but I will respond if I've spent two hours with two well-developed characters who seem to belong together. The new British comedy FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL delivers only halfway. Hugh Grant turns in a charming, star-making performance in this uneven character piece, but Andie MacDowell always appears to be more of a prop than a person.
Grant stars as Charles, an inveterate bachelor who seems to find himself going to a friend's wedding every weekend. At one of these weddings, he spots a beautiful American named Carrie (Andie MacDowell), and finds himself instantly smitten. Their encounter is brief, but leaves him wondering about his own desire for a lasting relationship, and his ability to make it succeed. Then, to Charles' surprise, he meets Carrie again, at yet another wedding. However, there is an impediment to his affections: Carrie is engaged. While their flame smolders throughout their periodic meetings, Charles is ultimately left to deal with his own fears and to make some difficult decisions about what he really wants.
FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL was written by Richard Curtis, co-creator of the popular British television import "Black Adder," a series not renowned for its sentimentality. And FOUR WEDDINGS is extremely winning when it's not focusing on relationships. The film is loaded with goofy moments--Charles the best man frantically trying to improvise for the forgotten wedding rings in the first ceremony; "Black Adder" vet Rowan Atkinson as a nervous novice priest malapropping his way through the second wedding; Charles trapped in a room with two newlyweds with impressive stamina. There are enough of these lively set pieces that FOUR WEDDINGS rarely lags for too long, and the laughs come at fairly regular intervals.
It is when Curtis shifts to his characters that he stumbles. Part of the problem is that in an attempt to create yet another ensemble friends piece he overloads the film with supporting characters, giving short shrift to the crucial relationship between Charles and Carrie. What's worse, almost all of the friends are drawn in only the sketchiest of terms; characters like Charles' cynical friend Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas) and flatmate Scarlett (Charlotte Coleman) are given a few lines to establish their particular romantic dilemma, then sent to fade into the background. Only James Fleet, as befuddled aristocrat Tom, provides any spark to the proceedings. The simple fact is that I kept losing track of the relationships between all these people, and didn't particularly care when I could figure them out.
This lack of focus is inexcusable considering the cursory treatment Carrie's character is given. Part of FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL's message about love is that we should all be looking for that one person who makes "lightning strike," and while the romantic sentiment is laudable it also assumes that we as an audience should recognize it when we see it. Hugh Grant, looking frighteningly like Harold Lloyd in his horn-rims, is an absolute delight; he turns Charles into a wonderful, funny, fallible character, and we want to see him happy. But Carrie is simply a plot device. We know virtually nothing about her except that Charles has a crush on her, and Andie MacDowell is not subtle enough an actress to fill in the blanks. It also might have been helpful to understand Charles' romantic history better, which could have been accomplished through a more complete picture of ex-girlfriend Henrietta, but that too is absent. There is much to recommend FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL as a comedy; it's bright and spirited and well-paced. As a romance, it leaves much to be desired ... primarily a second party for the romantic pairing.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 weddings: 7.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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