FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL

(March 1994, U.S.)

What exactly is it about British comedy in that all anyone has to do is merely say something, anything, and somehow there's a degree of wit to it that will have me laughing before I can even think about what's really so funny about it? Really, sometimes if I really want to just laugh, I'll watch a standup DVD by Eddie Izzard or any number of episodes of FAWLTY TOWERS or MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS. Perhaps, though, that's just me.

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL follows the adventures of a group of friends through the eyes of Charles (played by Hugh Grant), a debonair but faux pas-prone Englishman, who is just smitten with Carrie, an attractive American (played Andie MacDowell), who Charles repeatedly meets at four weddings and at a funeral (get it?). They hit it off almost immediately and end up sleeping together and saying goodbye faster than you can say, "I cheated on Elizabeth Hurley!" What Charles doesn't count on is being invited to Carrie's own wedding in Scotland. He later tries to confess his inevitable love to her and hints that he would like to have a relationship with her. However, he says it rather lamely, and the confession obviously comes too late. Unfortunately, it's at her wedding that one of the group of friends has a heart attack and dies (hence the funeral).

Now the interesting twist here is that the final wedding turns out to be Charles' own, but it appears he's only marrying out of convenience and also because it appears he's lost Carrie. Not so. She actually shows up at the wedding and lets Charles know her marriage didn't last. Uh-oh! What's poor Charlie gonna do now on the day of his wedding? The answer, in case you haven't seen this film, lies in your own preference of DVD rental.

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL is sly and delightful and directed with a very light-hearted enchantment. Hugh Grant's performance gives off what can only be described as an endearing awkwardness that you can't help but laugh at. Like I said, there's just something about those British.

Favorite line or dialogue:

Charles: "Ehm, look. Sorry, sorry. I just, ehm, well, this is a very stupid question and...particularly in view of our recent shopping excursion, but I just wondered, by any chance, ehm, eh, I mean obviously not because I guess I've only slept with nine people, but, but I, I just wondered...ehh. I really feel, ehh, in short, to recap it slightly in a clearer version, eh, the words of David Cassidy in fact, eh, while he was still with the Partridge family, eh, "I think I love you," and eh, I, I just wondered by any chance you wouldn't like to...eh...eh...no, no, no of course not...I'm an idiot, he's not...excellent, excellent, fantastic, eh, I was gonna say lovely to see you, sorry to disturb...better get on..."