**1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott-Thomas, John Hannah, Simon Callow, and Rowan Atkinson
Directed by Mike Newell & written by Richard Curtis
1994
117 min R
“Four Weddings and a Funeral” is a charming and thoroughly British comedy-of-manners with a dumb American romance tacked on. I can’t help thinking the movie lacks the confidence to follow its characters to their logical conclusions. The good parts of the movie follow a group of old friends, including Hugh Grant, Kristin Scott-Thomas, John Hannah, and Simon Callow, but only sees the friends on days in which they attend other people’s weddings.
Imagine: how would your existence be defined if the only thing others could observe was your behavior at awkward social events that sometimes go on for days and days? There are plenty of people, after all, that we do define solely by their behavior at weddings and funerals because that’s the only time we interact with them. These episodes in the movie have a pleasantly low-key and almost improvised feel to them. We watch our heroes mill about, hear snatches of their conversation, and patiently go through the rituals of seating charts and matching flowers. The filmmakers know how the upper-middle class likes its weddings. They know the tackiness, the nerves, the obsessions. They have the color scheme down pat. They know those women who loom over weddings with a dismissive attitude toward all who would dare wonder at how arcane, bizarre, or unnecessary it all is.
Our heroes comment, often through polite lies, on the proceedings, and the proceedings cause them to reflect on their own lives. Along the way, for comic relief, is the mighty Rowan Atkinson as a clergyman who makes Freudian slips at the worst possible times, which are therefore the best possible times.
At the front of our band of buddies is Hugh Grant in his breakthrough performance. He has played variations of this character ever since, and I don’t mind because I’m still entertained by it. What’s interesting, years later, is how he works so much harder in “Four Weddings and a Funeral”—so many tics, mannerisms, and changes of expression. Compare it to “About a Boy” and “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” in which his cad persona has been distilled and perfected. Anyway, he is “a cad” in “Four Weddings,” which is to say that if he were a girl you would call him “a slut.” He hops from woman to woman, not so much because he feels entitled to them, but because he dreads commitment, because he is weak, and because he can.
The problem is when he meets Andie MacDowell, playing an American who crosses his path at several of the weddings. Because she has no Y chromosome, we call her “a slut.” That he would be attracted to her makes perfect sense. That they would sleep together makes perfect sense. That he would think she’s the love of his life and the answer to all his problems makes perfect sense. Is she? No. The movie fails to convince us that she’s any better for him than any of the other girls he’s been with. And when the movie starts beating us over the head with music, lighting, and camera angles, trying to whip up into an ooey-gooey conviction that these two are destined for each other, well, I started to get a little pissed off.
It would be lazy, unfair, and pretty typical of our cultural misogyny to blame Andie MacDowell. She is a limited actress but usually wise enough to choose good roles; she is as adequate here as she is in “Groundhog Day.” It’s not her fault she’s backlit like an angel. It’s not her fault romantic music swells even as we’re wrinkling our brows. I think the shortcoming belongs to director Mike Newell and screenwriter Richard Curtis. They wanted a happy ending and invented one out of thin air. It’s possible that the music and the lighting is subjective filmmaking, i.e., we’re seeing things from Hugh Grant’s point-of-view, who really would be beaming like a moron around Andie. Still, “Four Weddings and a Funeral” ends with a cheerfulness that it did not earn. The conclusion feels false, and that’s a shame, because the rest of the movie is a pretty good examination of these bits of beloved tomfoolery we call weddings.
Finished Saturday, November 19th, 2005
Copyright © 2005 Friday & Saturday Night
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