Charles wakes up in his bed, realizing he is late for a wedding where he is invited to be the best man. He forgets the ring, but the wedding still succeeds. Charles' friends Fiona, Tom and Gareth are also there, yet what intruiges him the most is one of the guests, American Carrie, with whom he spends the night with. The 2nd wedding: Charles meets Carrie again, but she is now engaged. He still lands with her in bed. 3rd wedding: Carrie marries Scottsman Hamish, while Charles can only mourn for himself. A funeral: Gareth died, and among the guests, Charles again meets Carrie. 4th wedding: Charles is about to get married himself, to Henrietta, but meets Carrie who divorced Hamish. Charles breaks up the wedding and starts a relationship with Carrie.
"Four Weddings and a Funeral", an extraordinarily successful British film in 1994, has not aged that well, yet still works thanks to its charm and wit, which manage to lift it up from several convulsive or forced moments, and a major kudos should be given to the wonderful performance by Hugh Grant, who delivered one of his finest roles. The simple, yet effective storyline is the most interesting part, creating a time frame consisting exclusively within only five events (hence the four weddings and a funeral from the title) through which the two protagonists, Charles and Carrie, meet while attending them as guests, and this "restrictive" narration gives their interaction a certain preciousness, since it is rare and can only exist within these five parameters. The script by Richard Curtis has sporadic inspiration: in one example, Matthew holds a speech at the funeral for the deceased Gareth, which masterfully transitions from funny and ridiculous ("...his recipe for "Duck à la Banana" fortunately goes with him to his grave...") to surprisingly emotional and magical, all within one sequence—but it is indicative that this best, emotional speech in the movie comes not from Curtis himself, but is a "borrowed" quote from W. H. Auden's poem "Funeral Blues" which is here conveniently used verbatim ("He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest; My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song. I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood, For nothing now can ever come to any good."). Even though this is a romantic comedy, the director Mike Newell even allowed it to include some goofy and ludicrous jokes (such as the closing credits which reveal that Fiona got married to Prince Charles), though some of them are clumsy, such as the badly directed sequence where Charles hides and endures the sounds of Bernard and Lydia having sex in the room, until he makes an awkward exit. Andie MacDowell is both sweet and funny as the American girl Carrie, creating chemistry with Grant, and contributing to the positive impression of the overall film.
Grade:++
No comments:
Post a Comment