Four Weddings and a Funeral [M]

Charles is chronically late, charmingly bumbling, and waiting for true love to strike him light lightening. But when he actually gets his wish at a friend’s wedding, he doesn’t quite know what to do with it. Meeting Carrie turns Charles’ world completely around, but wooing her turns out to be incredibly tricky and awkward, particularly amidst the wedding nightmares that surround Charles and his friends. 

Earning its place in The Book, Four Weddings and a Funeral is possibly one of the most memorable and important romantic comedies in cinematic history. It’s wonderfully charming, reserved, funny, and surprisingly romantic. I loved it, absolutely LOVED it! 

Charles is chronically late, charmingly bumbling, and waiting for true love to strike him like lightening. But when he actually gets his wish at a friend’s wedding, he doesn’t quite know what to do with it. Meeting Carrie turns Charles’ world completely around, but wooing her and realising his true feelings turn out to be incredibly tricky and awkward, particularly amidst the romantic, marital, and wedding day nightmares that surround Charles and his closest friends. 

A round of applause for Richard Curtis please! This man is such a wonderful writer and that, teamed with the direction of Mike Newell is a marriage that should be acknowledged, possibly as part of the title. What makes this film stand out, for me, as a timeless romantic comedy is the fact that is very much a complete cock-up of what we all envisage screen romances to be like. There are no exuberant gestures of love, no clever and original displays of affection, and certainly no romantic clichés to speak of, and THAT is what makes this film so clever, so funny, and so perfect. It’s filled with the awkwardness, struggles, falls, and fuck-ups that accompany relationships, particularly that stage of actually initiating a relationship. And everything is done so nice and subtly. Simple and brilliant!

Whilst the weddings provide the film with its moments of comedy and romance, the funeral brings poignancy and heart to the film and serves as a bit of a catalyst for the heroes; making them realise that you cannot wait for true love and happiness to come to you. 

And the performances were particularly memorable as each character has his or her own story to tell, each one filled with struggles, tragedy, confusion, comedy, and frustrated romance. Starring Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, James Fleet, Simon Callow, John Hannah, Kristen Scott Thomas, David Bower, Charlotte Coleman, Anna Chancellor, and Rowan Atkinson, Four Weddings and a Funeral was a brilliantly refreshing and clever romantic comedy that was filled with awkwardness, cock-ups, drama, romance, horrible wedding dresses, lightening, and comedy. I loved it, I REALLY LOVED IT!