This movie is a gift

I think I was too young to realize what a gift “Four Weddings and a Funeral” was when I saw it the first time. Either that, or it’s too easy to see how unique it was now. This is the kind of romantic comedy that feels like a relic of the past- wonderfully witty, acerbic, and delightful. Hollywood seems to have lost this kind of enchantment a long time ago.

Better still, it knows it doesn’t need to be sickly sweet in order to do it. The first 10 minutes probably set a record for F-bombs as English bachelor Charlie (Hugh Grant) realizes he’s not only late (which he often is) for the opening wedding he’s a Best Man of, but he’s also forgot the rings, forcing him to correct his error on the fly.

It must be wedding season cause over what, I believe, is a half year, Charlie and a regular crew of friends will attend the number of weddings from the title. At the first wedding is where he also becomes smitten with American girl Carrie (Andie MacDowell), though she is dividing her time between the two countries and he is a commitment-phobe.

Unlike a lot of romantic comedies back then that were way more cutesy, but sexless, it’s nice to see one that’s not only mature about it, but doesn’t forget to let the sparks fly. The rest of the relationship seems like it will follow a conventional path of bringing them together and then apart, and other romantic partners serving as impediments but writer Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”) and director Mike Nicholls do nice work in subverting expectations.

They weave the film throughout the four weddings, and one funeral, where we not just meet Charlie and Carrie but several other of the regular wedding guests, most of which adamantly opposed to the idea of marriage themselves.

There’s the jolly Gareth (Simon Callow) and his boyfriend Mathew (John Hannah), a gay couple who live it up at every wedding, the acerbically sour Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas), who has given up on love after getting her heart broken, and Tom (Fleet), a good-hearted bumbler.

The weddings themselves make for relatable comedy. If you’ve ever been awkwardly seated at a table around people you don’t know, been made to give a speech, talked shit about the married couple and other people behind their back, or drunkenly found yourself snogging another drunken person, this movie contains everything about weddings.

Curtis often finds funny situations to put these people in, like trapping Charlie in a room with a newlywed married couple, but more or less he does far more poignant work in just letting us get to know these people. They experience loss (both of life and love), they seem confounded, as many of us are, about taking the plunge into being totally devoted to one person, and they struggle with the words to say what they feel.

Grant, with his mop of hair, shows why this made him a star. I guess he’s always had the ability to hide feelings behind witty self-deprecation, I just never noticed cause he’s also good at the kind of shy phumphering that makes him as charming as a lost puppy. MacDowell comes in and out, but has such a relaxed way of being more open, even making a scene of naming all her sexual partners while Grant stares in befuddlement into something funny and naturally self-assured.

Rowan Atkinson also can’t be left out in a great cameo as a novice priest who keeps forgetting the names and gets the words wrong during one of the ceremonies. All in all this movie is total joy, filled with humor, romance, and characters you love spending time with. It’s only the ending that succumbs to cheesy lines and what feels like a quick wrap-up. Otherwise, this one was well worth the second look.