Four Weddings and a Funeral is a romantic comedy about marriage, funerals, and true love. Hugh Grant (About a Boy; Love Actually) plays Charlie, an inveterate bachelor. Like the eponymous title, the film is four weddings (almost) and a funeral. The setting is in England. In the first wedding, Charlie is the best man. The highest decibel element of the film is its satire on ceremony. Charlie is running late to the wedding. He forgot to set an alarm. His morning ritual involves a series of expletives that is repeated throughout the day. Arriving at the chapel, a man asks Charlie if he remembered to bring the wedding ring, at least. Charlie pats his pocket, and opens his mouth in shock. No ring. Luckily, Charlie is bound to a group of friends who improvise for him, and continue to do so throughout the film. At this first wedding, Charlie meets Carrie, an attractive, daring, and confident American woman, played by Andie MacDowell (Groundhog Day; Short Cuts). Charlie spends the night with Carrie, and in the morning, is asked by Carrie if he will get engaged with her. As you can guess, while Charlie is handsome, educated, and charming he is somewhat scattered, even for a Brit, especially when it comes to rituals and commitments. Carrie leaves, and becomes engaged to an elder, stodgy, Scottish man. The audience, both young and old alike, are sure to cringe at a beautiful woman like Andie MacDowell passing up Hugh Grant for a plain, aged, and kilted politician.
The second wedding is hellish for Charlie, and serves to move the plot forward. There is a hilarious scene, with Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) as a priest who is doing his first wedding ceremony ever. He screws up the bride and groom’s vows by asking them to repeat hilarious opposite gender names and says the trinity is, “Jesus Christ, our lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Goat.” Announced in fancy cursive on an envelope on Charlie’s bed is the marriage of Carrie and Hamish, the third wedding. Charlie bumps into Carrie while Carrie is shopping for a matrimonial dress. He does not tell her he loves her. At the wedding, one of Charlie’s friends has a heart attack. This friend of Charlie’s is the most eccentric of the group. He is the one who mocks ceremony with intricate and colorful vests while at the same time taking immense joy out of it. To Charlie and his friends, his death means an end for the group’s fanfare about marriage, and a return to being serious about such events. After his funeral, Charlie hardens his heart about ever finding true love, and wishes for marriage, before it’s too late for him.
Charlie is actually on time to his own wedding. Everything seems to be going smoothly, until Carrie shows up. Carrie tells Charlie that she separated from Hamish. For Charlie, his facade of propriety comes crashing down. He will not say, “I do,” to Helen, a woman who was a bittersweet ex of Charlie’s. Instead, his brother signals to him in sign language, because the brother is deaf, that the groom (Charlie) is having doubts and is in love with someone else. Charlie repeats it in front of the entire clergy and guests. Helen punches Charlie in the face, and that is the end of that.
The fourth wedding is Carrie and Charlie, soaked and drowning in a sporadic English rain. Carrie and Charlie seal their vow not to marry each other, for the rest of their lives, with a drenched kiss. While marriage was the spur to Carrie and Charlie’s relationship, ultimately, their love could stand no such imposition. Their love is all heart, and no obligation. It’s a kind of love we should all aspire to, rather than the one with white dresses, tiered cakes, flowers, and strings attached. It is an especially poignant message, coming from a country that still tries to keep medieval ritual, with Kings, Queens, Lords, and within universities. The theme that will stay with the audience, whether they are civilized Englishmen, uncultured Americans, or somewhere in between, is that we have these ceremonies, but some of them matter and some of them don’t.
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