It always helps if a movie has a great script. It's also a big plus if the director is really good. On these counts, Four Weddings and a Funeral comes close, but no cigar. The screenplay is passable, and the direction is okay, but we're not talking Citizen Kane.
What Four Weddings and a Funeral does have, however, is an extremely good piece of ensemble acting by a set of performers who could read figures from the stock market and still earn a warm laugh. It's a triumph of acting over filmmaking, but who's complaining? Acting may be the one thing that the English are still good at, and this film is a delightful tour de force that deftly lampoons the absurdity of good manners.
Hugh Grant heads a large cast in the central role of Charles, a young London bachelor who much prefers being a best man to being a groom. He routinely catches up with his pals and numerous ex-girlfriends at their various weddings, where it becomes obvious that Charles has a problem far greater than his tendency toward embarrassing faux pas. He's incapable of uttering those "three little words" of endearment — which is why he has so many ex-girlfriends.
This especially becomes a problem when he falls hopelessly in love with Andie McDowell. She's a visiting American who keeps popping up at the same weddings Charles attends. She and Charles begin an incredibly disjointed love affair, despite the fact that Charles can't admit that he's in love with her, and McDowell doesn't expect him to. Besides she's already engaged to a stuffy Scottish politician (Corin Redgrave), which is one of the reasons Grant is so unsure of where he stands with her.
Where the couple mostly stands is at the back of the chapel. Charles' friends are moving down the aisle with the predictability of salmon in the spring, but the closest he gets to the altar is when he fumbles handing off the ring to the groom.
The plot to Four Weddings and a Funeral may sound thin, even contrived. It is. The whole movie is sliding across a remarkably thin sheet of ice, and what really saves it is some solid skating by Grant and McDowell. Also along for the ride is a long list of eccentric friends who are successfully fleshed out as full-blown characters. Even the minor bits are well handled, most notably one by Kenneth Griffiths, whose "Mad Old Man" steals a hysterical five minutes of screen time.
Director Mike Newell is clearly looking to reclaim the previous success he enjoyed with Enchanted April. Four Weddings and a Funeral isn't quite in the same league, but it's close enough. It's definitely one of the few bright spots of the season.
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