Film
Four Weddings and a Funeral
- Director
- Mike Newell
- Certificate
- 15
- Running Time
- 117 mins
Who’d have guessed that one of the most successful British films of all time would open with a string of expletives? Or that it would propel W.H. Auden’s Funeral Blues back into the bestseller list? Hugh Grant’s diffident, stuttering toff shtick may have worn a bit thin over the years, but he’s never been better, nor so well cast, as he is in this sprightly, charming and consistently funny romantic comedy written by Richard (Blackadder) Curtis.
Grant’s a bumbling bachelor whose circle of friends have reached the age where they’re all starting to get hitched. At a reception, he meets and falls for glamorous American Andie MacDowell, but such is his characteristic indecision that the inevitable fails to happen until two weddings and a funeral later. The latter is the cue for the film’s Auden-fuelled highlight, during which we learn of an unexpected diversity among these country house wedding folk. Director Mike Newell and Curtis keep it light and funny throughout, while never allowing the believable characters to slip into caricature. They’re well served by an excellent ensemble cast, with only the somewhat wooden MacDowell letting the side down. There’s also a fine cameo from Rowan Atkinson as a useless vicar who manages to get everything wrong.
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