Rating: 
Summary: Great Movie . . . Ugh! Except for Andie MacDowell!
Review: Yet another smashing British comedy. Yes . . . Yes . . . It would have been perfect if not for Andie MacDowell.The movie carries on rather wittily (if not cynically) as seven friends: one pair of siblings: Charles and Scarlet; another pair of siblings, decidedly richer: Fiona and Tom; a pair of homosexual lovers: Garreth and Matthew; and a deaf man: David; attend four weddings (one being Charles'own) and a funeral with a particular air of skepticism. Hugh Grant plays the main character, Charles, who in the first wedding is the best man, the tardy best man. During the reception, Charles falls in love with Andie MacDowell's character, the uncharismatic Carrie. That night the two "make love." The following morning is another wedding at which Tom is the best man (hilarious wedding indeed!) and Charles arrives late again. He finds Carrie's there also to discover that she is engaged to a Scottish "gentle"man, after which the two end up in bed again. Over the course of the movie, and after a considerable period since their last lovemaking session, Charles receives Carrie's wedding invitation and the gift list. She asks him to help her pick out a wedding dress, then accompanies her to coffee where she gives him the lowdown on her thirty-three sex partners. Charles actually attends her Scottish wedding (still in love with her). After which he decides to settle down with a woman who, for lack of a better word, stalked him after they dated. Carrie shows up, confesses her divorce to Scottish bloke, and her love for Charles. In the end Charles denies his bride at the altar and lives happily ever after with Carrie after she agrees that she will not marry him. Yes, it' just that empty. Only where Charles and Carrie are concerned, though! MacDowell is just . . . all wrong for this movie. How Grant's character could still love her after he discovered she was a jaunty harlot (33?!) and engaged escapes me! MacDowell wasn't even a likeable harlot (Kristin Scott Thomas's character, Fiona, said it right: American slut). Her plain country voice just clashed horribly with Grant's charming British one. Nothing she said was funny. She just should not have been here. Another American actress would have been better suited, or a British actress even better. Having said that, the rest of the movie is fantastic. Most of the humor is laughable, at other times it is clever without being sidesplitting, like most British humor. James Fleet is wonderful as the bumbling Tom.
Simon Callow is perfectly cast as the flamboyant Gareth whose funeral is the Funeral from the title.
John Hannah has a lot of chemistry as Gareth's Scottish lover, Matthew, the more optimistic of the group.
Kristen Scott Thomas brilliantly plays Fiona, the more critical of the seven because of her secret feelings for Charles.
Charlotte Coleman is Charles' sister, Scarlett: the wild child with scarlet hair.
David Bower is the deaf David who, despite speaking in sign language, adds to the film (whereas Andie MacDowell, who spoke often, contributed nothing).
And of course Hugh Grant is Charles, the convincing bachelor who falls into an unconvincing relationship that flaws the movie. Highly Recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: "There's a sort of greatness to your lateness"
Review: Four Weddings and a Funeral is an extremely funny film. If the opening sequence doesn't make you laugh, nothing will. And conversely, if Matthew's moving rendition of W. H. Auden's "Stop all the clocks. . ." poem doesn't leave you close to tears, then you must be truly hard-hearted. Unfortunately though, what could have been an excellent comedy has a major flaw. Charles (Hugh Grant) is a likeable chap whose friends are all getting married, leaving him as a sort of perpetual Best Man. Then American Carrie (Andie MacDowell) enters the picture and causes Charles to reassess his thoughts on marriage. Grant has charisma in spades, but sadly MacDowell does not. In fact, she is perhaps one of the least charismatic actresses ever. Not only that, but the limit of her acting ability seems to be a toothpaste-advertisement-style smile. Fortunately the casting of Charles's motley collection of single friends is excellent, and one can't help thinking he would be better off marrying one of them. The film is almost fly-on-the-wall in its style, which gives it realism and allows it to explore the relationships within the group of friends on an intimate and everyday level. Hence the subtle humour works better than, for example, Rowan Atkinson's very obvious laugh-line attempts as a preacher with a penchant for Spoonerisms. As one character notes, weddings have a habit of blending together in the memory and the director has played on this, creating four weddings that are visually similar and yet distinct. And of one of them is particularly memorable for the fact that it doesn't actually include a marriage ceremony. At its conclusion the film shows that whilst marriage is a noble institution, it is not for everybody.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated Piece of Garbage
Review: I can't believe this movie was a hit, unless I saw a different movie with the same title. We are given the rare priviledge spending time around a bunch of shallow, annoying, whiney, vacuous people as they attend the titular events. Why we are meant to care what happens to any of them, we are never told. The only character who is almost halfway likable is a condesending jerk, and its his funeral in the title. The only reason I went to see this was that Rowan Atkinson is billed as one of its main players. He is only in two scenes, and is even less funny than the rest of the cast ("Oh, he said 'spigot' instead of 'Spirit,' I think my sides are about to burst.") Screenwriter Richard Curtis, who also wrote for "Black Adder," must have blackmailed him. I think Americans who like this movie, and others like it (the Curtis genre), think that seeing it makes them really sophisticated. The joke is on them, however. Just before dying, the jerk makes fun of some Americans for not knowing Oscar Wilde is dead. The American who is ignorant of things British is one of the most tired cliche's in Brithish "comedy." Many who laught at it, I'm sure, don't recognize a difference between types of Americans. We're all stupid, in their books. The ones who vist Britain as tourists or watch their movies and TV shows are the most visible to them. They like to take our money, as much as they seem to resent us. Don't get me wrong. There is a lot of British stuff I like. I dream of one day visiting the Sceptre'd Isle. The Curtis genre, however, occasionally mocks Americans while pandering to a certain type of American, while the charcaters, but for their accents alone, are indistinguishable from the most boring types of shallow, middle-class Americans. And seeing Hugh Grant in this movie caused me to wonder from under which rock he was found. The slime oozing off his body was quite obviously palpable to me. Why nobody else? Is this a hoax? Is everyone just pretending to like this guy for some reson? Even assuming he's good looking and all that, so what? There are lots of pretty boys, and some of them don't engage in marathon sessions of nodding and blinking. I think hundreds of actors could do just as well, if not better than him in most of his movies in I've seen. For a list of the few good movies he's been in, see my "Films with Hugh Grant that are Actually Worth Watching" in Listmania Lists. After ten years, the bad aftertaste of this movie lingers on.
Rating:
Summary: For The Romantic In All Of Us
Review: "Four Weddings and a Funeral" is one of the few romantic comedies I appreciate. It's a lovable, hilarious look at the wackiness of love and weddings. Andie MacDowell and Hugh Grant are fine leads, though MacDowell's character is written rather weakly. There really isn't much for her to do, except perform the duties of "unrequited love interest". The other characters are very vivid, though. Hugh Grant truly shines in the role of his career as bumbling bachelor Charles, whose main characteristics consist of being late to weddings, stumbling over words, and fear of commitment to one woman. Grant is romantic and sympathetic without being coy, and I found myself falling in love along with Andie MacDowell! But the best part of the film is the supporting cast. I think it is responsible for the film's status as a comedy classic. Charlotte Coleman is perfect as fiery Scarlett, David Bower is hilarious as David, a bumbling bachelor like Charles, but lacking his suave charm, and Simon Callow is fondly memorable as flamboyant Gareth, perhaps the funniest of them all. My favorite performance, however, is that of Kristin Scott Thomas. As the icy, longing Fiona, she's an understated revelation. Director Mike Newell has called her performance the best of the film, and I agree. Scott Thomas is a great ensemble player (see "Gosford Park"), and here's hoping she lands another comedy soon. There is a pitiful lack of special features on this DVD, but at half the price of most, it's still worth owning. A movie this fun doesn't need lots of extras to justify its purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best romantic comedies ever!
Review: A bunch of British friends, who are outwardly proud of being single, but inwardly are looking for their perfect match are attending a wedding almost every weekend - including shy Charlie who falls in love with an impossible American woman, his redheaded flat mate named Scarlett, and a mutual friend who secretly loves Charlie.
The only thing wrong with this delightful DVD set is the lack of any special feature whatsoever.
Rating:
Summary: Moderately clever framing device masks contrivances galore
Review: I just want to put my two coins in the fountain here. This is an enjoyable film with lots of british humor and lightly sketched characters. The acting are so charming, in fact, that it glues together a shamelessly manipulative, outrageously unbelievable, and altogether unromantic film. Still, cuteness triumphs in the end, making this the epitome of light date-fare.
At the heart of the film is Hugh Grant, and his "serial monogomy." Unfortunately, this wafer-thin window dressing never attains an substance, and we are not given any insight into his world or his real interests. A very shallow cinematic experience to be sure. I would recommend "About a Boy" for a better, more Grantian character study. Because the guy is funny as hell.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: I thought I was at my own funeral and didn't want to be there. Another Hugh Grant goody-two-shoes part. Would someone please find this man a real character part. Please...he does have talent.
Rating:
Summary: In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spigot.
Review: Never have I been so impressed with a film as I was with Mike Newell's British romp, Four Weddings and a Funeral. I can honestly say that this was one of those films that needed to have strong definitive characters to make the story work, and Newell accomplished this task with the greatest of ease. While he had done some work prior to this film, America was introduced to a very funny and very British Hugh Grant for the first time. His amazing and singular work in this film skyrocketed him to his level in Hollywood today. He could not have found a better step ladder.
This film is funny, insightful, witty, and very personable. It is hard to find films of this caliber created by Hollywood anymore, so thankfully we have this film. Everything from the soundtrack (boasting several American songs), to the deeply humorous and intuitive references to American "pop" culture, to Hugh Grant's use of a certain word time over time, only keeps this film above all others. This is definitely one of those films that should be watched when life seems to be dragging and you need a bowl of laughter in your life. It should also be used by anyone that is a fan of British humor. It will turn any day into sunshine.
Overall, this was a surprising film when I watched it for the first time, and it continues to impress. I am not a huge fan of Andie MacDowell, so it sometimes perplexes me as to why she chose this project, but thankfully this is counteracted by one of Hollywood's most classic scenes involving Rowan Atkinson! That man can do no wrong! I suggest this film to everyone at least once. It may not be everyone's "cup of tea", but watching it once caused nobody harm.
Grade: **** out of *****
Rating:
Summary: The Serial, Unemployed (?) Monogamist
Review: This is definitely a film that can be watched over and over again, with a very talented cast of British actors. James Fleet's Tom actually elicits more laughs from me than Hugh Grant's Charles. Andie Macdowell has definitely earned the enmity of fans of this British comedy everywhere for the apparent coldness of her character ("Hey, aren't the English supposed to be the cold fish?"). But Carrie, I believe, is the kind of woman who would sleep with another and still manage to mercilessly seduce and befriend everyone in her way.
The movie, as a now cult hit, is curious in some ways. The film never explicitly states what Charles' job is. But there are two clues which should not be ignored. It seems that he is a writer or scholar of some sort, who deals with word origins and etymologies. 1) When he asks Tom to stop the car after the first wedding, he claims he wants to go to the inn "The Lucky Boatman" because "he is looking at English inns or pubs that have 'boat' in their title" (not an exact quote). 2) The second clue is given during the -ahem- amorous scene between Charles and Carrie that same night. Andie Macdowell asks Charles where he thinks the word "honeymoon" comes from, and he replies that it's honey because it's sweet, and moon because that would be the first time a husband would see his wife's bottom.
As for the other characters, Tom and Fiona are of course landed gentry (notice the Farmer's Weekly magazine on Tom's little table when he wakes up in the morning in the first scenes of the movie). Scarlett says she's after a job as a sales assistant at a place called "Spank" that sells rubber products (this is when Charles gets the invitation to Carrie's wedding). I have no clue as to what Gareth or Matthew do, but perhaps they are academics, although Gareth's funeral takes place near a factory.
I've always wondered what appointment Charles makes his brother David miss while Carrie is recounting her sexual experiences in the café. The building in the film does not look like a hospital or a bank.
Previous reviewers state that Charles and Scarlett are siblings. No indication of this is given in the movie; they are simply "flatmates." But Charles and David are of course brothers, and Charles refers to his father's funeral more than once.
Rating:
Summary: Tedious
Review: The film was tedious and dry. Zero chemistry between McDowell and Grant. An uninteresting disappointment, the film was disengaging and nearly vapid. A few comical moments couldn't save this bore.
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