Customer Reviews

Four Weddings and a Funeral (Deluxe Edition)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Four Weddings and a Funeral (comedy, romance, drama)
Directed by Mike Newell
Starring Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Simon Callow and James Fleet

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | 1994 | 117 min | Rated R | Released Jan 11, 2011

Video:
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: DTS 5.1
Italian: DTS 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: DTS 5.1
Polish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles:
English SDH, Catalan, Danish, Dutch, French, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish

Discs:
Single 50GB Blu-ray Disc

The Film 3.5/5

Four Weddings and a Funeral was released in 1994 and was a breakout role for Hugh Grant. If you have seen Notting Hill, Love Actually or the Bridget Jones movies, you'll know that Grant plays similar characters in every movie. Writer Richard Curtis wrote all of those screenplays and understands what Grant can do. He typically plays eloquent characters who are a bit confused about what they want in life. He has great comic timing and plays his roles with a lot of charm.

The movie opens with Charles (Grant) late for a wedding. We see him dash around with his flatmate, Scarlett, and drive like a maniac to reach the church on time. He's the best man, but he's forgotten to bring the rings. This opening sequence is pretty funny and sets the scene well.

Almost all of the action takes place at the four weddings and the funeral mentioned in the title. We are introduced to Charles and his friends, and they appear at every wedding. Tom (Fleet) is one of the richest men in Britain, but is clueless about women and doesn't have a girlfriend. He's amusing and harmless and reminds me of Colin Firth's character in Love Actually. Gareth embraces life and throws himself into any situation without stopping to worry whether he's making a fool of himself, while Matthew is his lover.

The story is full of good observations about human behavior. If you have ever been to a wedding, you'll recognize the types of character portrayed in the movie. Some are there because they genuinely want to be, but others tag along as an excuse to get drunk or to seek romantic partners of their own. Some are touching and others are embarrassing or annoying.

At the first wedding, Charles encounters Carrie (MacDowell). He likes her instantly and changes his plans so that he stays at the same inn. They have a romantic moment, but it quickly ends when Carrie announces that she has to return to America.

The rest of the movie shows meetings between Charles and Carrie at each of the weddings. Their situations change each time, but it's clear that they like each other. Charles runs into previous girlfriends continually, but considers marriage as something to be avoided for the most part. In contrast, Gareth thinks marriage is a good way to get out of a boring conversation.

Charles has a brother, David, who is deaf and communicates through sign language. That sets up a few of the funnier scenes when Charles lies about what David is saying. Another interesting character is Father Gerald; a young priest played by Rowan Atkinson. Most American viewers will know him as Mr. Bean, but he's appeared in numerous movies of this type as well as Blackadder, which was a TV series also written by Curtis. Father Gerald isn't a very good priest, but he'll probably make you laugh.

The movie succeeds because the characters are believable and similar to people we have encountered in our own lives. It's easy to identify with the main characters because the story rings true. It's above average in terms of romantic comedies and also works as pure comedy. Even if you don't care about Charles and Carrie, there's plenty to smile at. I wouldn't rate Four Weddings and a Funeral up there with Love Actually, but it's worth seeing.

Video Quality 3.5/5
Unless you bought Target's exclusive version in January, this is the first time you'll have had the chance to see Four Weddings and a Funeral on Blu-ray. The result is a clear upgrade, as you would expect, but it's not a stellar transfer by any means. The movie is plagued with minor scratches and dirt throughout the 118 minutes. The image is soft at times and clarity never threatens to dazzle the viewer. Colors are accurate, but a little subdued. I briefly considered a 3/5 rating, but I think most of the presentation deserves the extra half point. Fans of the movie should buy it, but temper expectations.

Audio Quality 4/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is more than adequate, but this isn't the kind of movie that makes full use of sound. It consists of dialogue-driven scenes for the most part, although the surrounds do add depth in the wedding reception scenes. I thought I detected minor sync issues in a couple of places, but they were brief.

Special Features 3/5

The special features are all presented in standard definition and were included on the DVD version of the movie.

Commentary with Director Mike Newell, Producer Duncan Kenworthy and Writer Richard Curtis.

In the Making (7:45)

The Wedding Planners (29:48) - A longer look at how the movie was made.

Two Actors and a Director (5:41) - Explaining how Grant and MacDowell were chosen for the lead roles.

Deleted Scenes (4:02) - Six brief scenes.

Promotional Spots (3:26)

Theatrical Trailer (2:08)

Four Weddings and a Funeral is a lot of fun, and works well for fans of British humor. Grant and MacDowell play their roles well. The Blu-ray offers a reasonable upgrade and is worth adding to your collection if you're a fan of the movie or if you like romantic comedies. The price is very attractive at the moment and is readily available for under $12.

Overall score 3.5/5

Woah, be gentle...I can't believe these bad reviews. There are all kinds of movies and this is a comedy of manners and characterizations! Do you have to love the HAMLET household to love Shakespeare...nay. The play Hamlet has awful characters... so what?

Andie plays a very unhappy woman, Hugh plays a very insecure man and the others are just what they are; either flawed, plain, charming, arrogant or whatever. This film is well filmed and well written with funny moments, especially because of the performances. I'm not giving away those moments, just see this movie it is far better than most comedies coming out of American cinema these days, so enjoy!

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!

ok. i loved the british characters. they were funny, touching, and altogether sympathetic. i would have preferred kristin scott thomas's character as the heroine, but oh well. i loved their sense of humor, and at the same time, i felt their sadness poignantly, particularly when john hannah gives his elegy. i think i actually teared up a bit. there were many of these precious moments.

but leave the damaging factor to the american heroine. i'm an american, but i just could not and would not identify with andie mcdowell's character. she kept trying to give that mysterious elusive quality to the character and just utterly failed. rather than seeming elusive and aloof, she seemed more like a tease that just wasn't worth it.

don't get me wrong, i'm a huge fan of romantic comedies, but that also means that i like my romantic comedies to be perfectly executed. the casting diretor failed miserably when casting andie mcdowell. either that or the screenwriter just didn't want to be nice to his heroine. but then, i really think andie's character could have been much more sympathetic if a different actress had played it - maybe even julia roberts, even when i'm not exactly a fan. i mean, how could a casting director think that viewers would find andie's character more desirable than that of kristin scott thomas (i forget the characters' names). i was honestly smacking myself in the forehead crying, why, charles why?

i understand a lot of people did like this movie, and i admit that this movie had so many great moments. but i stand by my humble opinion that andie mcdowell, simply put, sucked.

I frequently watch Four Weddings because it's a marvelously funny and classy movie. Several years ago I would never have believed that Hugh Grant could be a serious actor, but now I regard him as an excellent comedic actor, something like Cary Grant. His persona is similar to Cary Grant's: the handsome, appealing, but socially bungling playboy never-do-well. I love this persona, and I'm reminded of Cary Grant's movies with Irene Dunne.They are so hilarious because Dunne has a razor sharp wit and can put Grant in his place with her retorts.

The cast of actors in Foour Weddngs is interesting because you have the upper class,the middle class, the intellectual, and the lower class represented. They don't mind mingling with each other, and they genuinely love one another. Hugh's lines are always funny, especially at the first reception. Another great moment of comedy is at the reception of Bernard's wedding when Hugh Grant is seated with old flames, and his indiscretions are brought up at the table by these former flames.

Four Weddings is very balanced because there is a thread of sadness about the oneliness of the characters' not being married coarsing through the film, especially Hugh's character.Also, the death of the ebullient Garret, provides a wonderful foil to what might have become a silly film. Kristen's character is also sad because she never finds her love because she loves Hugh Grant's character. I wish that they would have fallen in love, instead of Andie McDowell's character.

The film's music score is georgeous, also. Richard Rodney Bennett composed the music to Yanks, with Richard Gere and Lisa Eichorn. William Devane, and Vanessa Redgrave. Yanks is a great romantic movie.I highly recommend it, even if you don't think Gere a good actor.

I freequently watch Four Weddings, and I heartily recommend it those who haven't view it or to those who need a romantic facelift.

Ricky Wallace

A runaway bestseller of a romantic comedy in England's best tradition. Tongue-in-cheek performances by Hugh Grant playing the bumbling, shambling, confused, stammering, charming, adorable, hopeless man as only he can do it, and Andie MacDowell, who is as smooth and composed as Grant is most decidedly NOT. He's a confirmed bachelor going to friends' weddings when he runs into her, and then a funeral intervenes. Then her wedding. Then his upcoming one...
On and on it goes. We know how it's going to end. The surprising thing is that in spite of the predictability, it's full of pathos, charm, and some heartbreaking scenes that stick with viewers long after the final credits roll.
Don't miss it.

My title says it all. This film is a classic, especially for people who enjoy ensemble casts. No one character is stronger than another, even though Hugh Grant is the "big name." All the others are equally important to the purpose of this movie. The cinematography and art direction are beautiful -- it's a visually gorgeous film. The people are so quirky and wonderful, I found myself wanting to know them and spend time with them. Each time I watch this I'm sorry when it ends. Chick flick? Maybe, but I watch it over and over. A keeper.

A delightful film funny, irreverant but with heart.

OK so this film may have been on TV quite a few times now, but you need to own a copy too. It's one of those films you can watch time and time again without getting tired of it. Every time I have seen this I have picked up something new.

The film centres around the character of Charles, played by Hugh Grant, who sees his friends getting married (and in one case dying) which causes him to think about his own relationships and what the future has in store for him, while all the time making witty (and sometimes silly) comments on his friends' actions.

While Grant is undoubtedly the star, this is to some extent an ensemble piece and there are delightful performances from John Hannah and Simon Callow in particular. Watch out for the late Charlotte Coleman as well. Andie MacDowell is the American here, yet does not seem at all out of place in the curious world of eccentricity, class, and tomfoolery into which she is thrown (I can say this, I am English!).

The script is just brilliant, by Blackadder/Vicar Of Dibley writer Richard Curtis, and is another element that makes you want to watch the film again and again.

Finally, the film has one great thing to recommend it, and that is a sympathetic deaf character who does not appear to have been put in the film solely because of his disability, and who is served well by a script that neither patronises nor ignores his deafness.

Although a comedy, there are some serious, sad moments in this film. By far one of Hugh Grant's best films.

This movie will show the importance of love in life. No matter how much one thinks they can do without love, they may never be truly happy.

Grant's character is quite the playboy. He is completely in love with an American girl, while all of the other girls are either in love with him or hate his guts.

This movie will have you laughing outloud. So, if you need a good laugh, but don't want a Dumb (or Dumber) movie, then this is the one for you.