Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Film C

  
  I have now watched this movie twice and i still don't understand why this movie is rated high. Yes it has a huge, wonderful cast and Richard Curtis is a delightful writer, however this movie is just boring and predictable from the start. you really don't have to watch the… More
  I have now watched this movie twice and i still don't understand why this movie is rated high. Yes it has a huge, wonderful cast and Richard Curtis is a delightful writer, however this movie is just boring and predictable from the start. you really don't have to watch the whole two hours of this movie in order to know where its going and whats its about. If this is the best of British Comedy then i'd be very worried! A mediocre movie, an obvious plot but a good cast and funny moments.

• Melvin W

  
  Carrie: I think we both missed a great opportunity here.  "Five good reasons to stay single." Four Weddings and a Funeral is a pretty good film when it comes to romantic comedies. It, however, didn't really suit my taste. I laughed here and there. I was able to enjoy… More
  Carrie: I think we both missed a great opportunity here.  "Five good reasons to stay single." Four Weddings and a Funeral is a pretty good film when it comes to romantic comedies. It, however, didn't really suit my taste. I laughed here and there. I was able to enjoy some clever dialogue. I easily sat through the whole thing. But I can't really say whether I liked it or not. I will say I liked it more than most romantic comedies. As far as the cast goes, Hugh Grant was decent. Simon Callow was terrific. Rowan Atkinson was there, which is never a good thing. Andie McDowell was bad and Kristin Scott Penn wasn't used as well as she could have been. The movie is obviously split up into five gatherings, four of which being weddings and one is a funeral; surprise, surprise. At each of the social gatherings Charles and Carrie run into each other. In ways the film reminds me of a inferior When Harry Met Sally. They connect the first time they meet, but go their separate ways, just to meet again. Then they go their separate ways again. It's all very predictable, but still not horrible. What does make this better than the standard romantic comedy is the that the movie does have clever dialogue and did make me laugh here and there. It was relentlessly funny, but it was just enough. The dialogue fits Hugh Grant to perfection. It's just a shame that some of it has to come out of Andie McDowells mouth. I don't hate her nearly as much as some, but her performance really took away from this becoming a great film. Overall it's not as spectacular as I was lead to believe, but it is passable. 

• Mike S

  
  Laughter, tears and everything in between. A delightful British drama-comedy, brilliantly directed by the eminent Mike Newell. Besides the engaging romance found within its core, it also has a great sense of humor that works every time. Another terrific element is the cast and… More
  Laughter, tears and everything in between. A delightful British drama-comedy, brilliantly directed by the eminent Mike Newell. Besides the engaging romance found within its core, it also has a great sense of humor that works every time. Another terrific element is the cast and characters, featuring - among many other wonderful actors - Hugh Grant at the top of his talent. I wish they made more films like this, because it's quite rare for me to enjoy a rom-com this much. A genuine pleasure from beginning to end, that has a lot to say about the essence of life. See it or you might regret that you didn't.

• Fernando Rafael Q

  
  As a pleasant Saturday-afternoon diversion, it succeeds. As a comedy, it doesn't. Not to the point where it's annoying or uncomfortable, but Four Weddings and a Funeral is simply not funny. But it's cute enough, and very well-constructed and written. Quirky wedding… More
  As a pleasant Saturday-afternoon diversion, it succeeds. As a comedy, it doesn't. Not to the point where it's annoying or uncomfortable, but Four Weddings and a Funeral is simply not funny. But it's cute enough, and very well-constructed and written. Quirky wedding hijinks are amusing, but it's the cast that makes this film a classic. For the first (and last) time, Hugh Grant does something that remotely resembles acting. James Fleet, Kristin Scott Thomas and Charlotte Coleman do a nice job. But the best performance is that of John Hannah. The funeral from the title is incredibly moving thanks to Hannah's award-worthy performance. On the other hand, Andie McDowell is the blandest actress I've ever seen (and a terrible casting mistake).

• Bethany M

  
  Quite funny!

• familiar s

  
  I'm not saying that the movie sucks. It's a passable comedy film with good actors giving average performance, but I didn't find it outstanding or exceptionally great (as I was led to expect by its high rating).

• Cassandra M

  
  Richard Curtis's films have sometimes been criticised for giving a too cosy, conservative view of British society. "Four Weddings and a Funeral" seems to take place in an England of eternal summer, a land which consists almost entirely of green and pleasant countryside… More
  Richard Curtis's films have sometimes been criticised for giving a too cosy, conservative view of British society. "Four Weddings and a Funeral" seems to take place in an England of eternal summer, a land which consists almost entirely of green and pleasant countryside and the more exclusive districts of London and which is populated solely by members of the upper and upper-middle classes. The script does cross the border into an equally idealised Scotland of mists, tartans and Highland flings, but even these scenes were actually shot in Surrey. Such criticism contains an element of truth, but is largely irrelevant when it comes to assessing the merits of the film because it ignores the fact that most romantic comedies (in other media as well as in the cinema) are set against a relatively narrow background in terms of social class, often enabling the writer to satirise the manners of that class. Jane Austin, for example, the most successful writer of romantic comedy in nineteenth-century England, set all her works among the wealthy landed gentry or prosperous bourgeoisie of the day. Most of the action of the film takes place either at, or immediately before or after, one of the four church services mentioned in the title. The main character, Charles, is a well-to-do young man, probably educated at public school, and clearly a member of the professional classes, although we never actually discover what his job is. The film starts with a wedding at which Charles is best man to Angus, one of his old friends, and at which he meets Carrie, an attractive young American woman. The film then traces the ups and downs of the relationship of Charles and Carrie, via two more weddings (the second of which is Carrie's own, after she and Charles have split up), the funeral of Gareth, another friend of Charles who suffers a heart attack while dancing at Carrie's wedding, and one final marriage ceremony. Hugh Grant, as Charles, gives a very good performance. Grant has a relatively narrow range as an actor, but he is capable of some excellent work within that range. There are some subtle differences between Charles and William, the character Grant played in "Notting Hill", another romantic comedy written by Curtis. William is a shy young man who uses ironic, self-deprecating humour as a cover for his shyness and lack of self-confidence. He is very much in love with Anna, that film's heroine, but is afraid to declare his love because he cannot believe that a beautiful and successful film star would take any interest in the owner of a small bookshop. Charles, by contrast, is less shy than William and enjoys more success with women. His humour is also ironic, but for a different reason. He is afraid of his emotions and of commitment and uses irony as a means of distancing himself from life and of avoiding having to commit himself. The film can be seen as the story of Charles's journey to emotional maturity. He has had a number of brief affairs, all of which have petered out precisely because he is afraid of his emotions. His relationship with Carrie initially goes the same way and she marries a richer and older man. The change in Charles's character is partly due to the fact that he sees his carefree bachelor world disappearing as most of his friends get married, but the event which seems to have the greatest effect on him is Gareth's funeral, at which a moving eulogy is read by Matthew, Gareth's gay partner, touchingly played by John Hannah. Charles realises the strength of the love that Gareth and Matthew shared for one another and comes to appreciate that such a relationship is something to be valued. Grant does well to make Charles a sympathetic figure, despite his having many failings quite apart from his ironic distancing of himself from the world. He is clumsy, accident-prone (he manages to lose the ring at Angus's wedding), much given to profane language and can be appallingly tactless, especially about his former girlfriends. The other main character, Carrie, can perhaps be seen as a female Charles, someone who is on the same journey as him but who has travelled slightly further. (It is significant that her name is short for Caroline, the feminine equivalent of the name Charles). She freely admits to having had over thirty previous lovers, but she is the first to want to bring emotional commitment to their relationship. Am I, incidentally, the only one to have liked Andie MacDowell's performance?- she has come in for a lot of criticism, in my view undeserved, on this board. The film is, however, more than simply a study of relationships- it is also very funny with some superb lines. Hugh Grant can be very amusing, and there was a great cameo from Rowan Atkinson as a bumbling, nervous trainee priest who keeps fluffing his lines during one of the weddings. ("Awful wedded wife", or "Holy Goat" for "Holy Ghost"). I also liked David Bower as Charles's deaf brother David, the late Charlotte Coleman as his impudent younger sister Scarlett and Anna Chancellor as his ex-girlfriend Henrietta (also known as Duckface), whose embarrassing emotional incontinence perhaps explains why Charles is so keen to distance himself from his feelings. I was less impressed by Simon Callow as Gareth, loud, extrovert and excessively hearty (like most characters Callow plays).

• Dean !

  
  A pretty good comedy, it kinda set the tone for many others to follow. The wedding and reception scenes are funny. No doubt they will seem familiar and bring back memories for people of their own experiences. Worth a watch.

• Tim S

  
  Quite excellent romantic comedy that doesn't try to be a romantic comedy. Just a really good story.

• Cassie H

  
  Really crappy.

• Anthony L

  
  Has its moments but it ultimately began a trend of really shit British films that have ruined the British film industry! Why did they need an American star? They didn?t need her at all! I like Charlotte Coleman though and that?s why I give it an extra star!

• Jon L

  
  Whoa, I can't really remember this one. Soooo...2 stars.

• Red L

  
  I watched this for the second or third time today. Watch it if you can, it is a great story. If you count the photos during the end credits, perhaps the movie should be called "Eight weddings and a funeral". Perhaps a fault of the movie - whereas it does a good job of… More
  I watched this for the second or third time today. Watch it if you can, it is a great story. If you count the photos during the end credits, perhaps the movie should be called "Eight weddings and a funeral". Perhaps a fault of the movie - whereas it does a good job of discussing the process of making that decision of who your life partner will be, I'm not sure how many couples these days go thru those fancy weddings anymore?

• Lady D

  
  Old but pretty funny, Unfortunately as an English girl, this film represented the more upper class section of people and I tend to prefer more gritty English films.

• Jennifer X

  
  Andie McDowell is kind of a wooden stick, and Hugh Grant isn't as charming as he would like to think, but his band of English friends are very funny, even though I kept on getting their names confused, and I'm glad they ended up together and all that even though they… More
  Andie McDowell is kind of a wooden stick, and Hugh Grant isn't as charming as he would like to think, but his band of English friends are very funny, even though I kept on getting their names confused, and I'm glad they ended up together and all that even though they didn't get married, but it wasn't like a waste of time watching this or anything.

• Mason W

  
  Four Weddings and a Funeral is a British import! I really enjoy this film starring Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, & Kristin Scott Thomas. Hugh Grant plays a man that along with his friends attend many a wedding hence the title. He is a very single man and his interest is peaked… More
  Four Weddings and a Funeral is a British import! I really enjoy this film starring Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, & Kristin Scott Thomas. Hugh Grant plays a man that along with his friends attend many a wedding hence the title. He is a very single man and his interest is peaked when meeting at one wedding ceremony a single American (MacDowell). Many funny scenes such as when Hugh and his sister are very late to the 1st wedding in the movie. Andie has a cute scene in trying on wedding gowns and there is a lovely sountrack...cheers!

• Dean M

  
  The ensemble cast give this clever comedy-drama film true charm. Rowan Atkinson is hilarious as a nervous novice priest.

• Candy R

  
  Romantic comedy that shot Hugh Grant to fame. He plays the usual non-committing Englishman who falls in love with an American girl he meets at a wedding.

• Ross C

  
  The film that put British cinema back on the map and kicked off many careers - a classic. I never tire of this movie, it remains hilariously funny every time I see it. Some classic lines and moments, despite the cheesy ending.

• Tim S

  
  Hugh Grant is smug.

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