Day: April 7, 2015

“F” is for Four Weddings and a Funeral

| rachelhamm
source: movieguide.org
source: movieguide.org

Watched: March 5, 2015 on Netflix

Hashtag: #Watching4WedsAndAFuneral

Year Released: 1994

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Starring: Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell

Run Time: 117 minutes

Description (from Amazon): A reserved Englishman meets attractive American Carrie at a wedding and falls in love with her, but his inability to express his feelings seems to forestall any possibility of relationship – until they meet again and again.

 

I’m 50/50 on this movie.  I liked the comedy – there were several moments where I laughed out loud.  There were great one-liners, like this one

source: pinterest.com
source: pinterest.com

Hugh Grant (Charles) was charming, as he is in all his Richard Curtis collaborations, but it was not lost on me that he wasn’t really playing a character so much as playing a less skeezy version of himself (as he does in all his Richard Curtis collaborations).  Andie MacDowell as Carrie was fine, but she really had some horrible dialogue to deliver and it never felt as though we were getting much of a personality from her.  She was an ideal.  A Richard Curtis manic-pixie-dream-girl with a Southern American accent and a lot of sexual experience.  I didn’t buy their romance. It was too sudden in the beginning, too unrealistic at the end.

The rest of the cast of characters, on the other hand, was superb.  I found myself rooting for supporting characters whose names I didn’t even know, wishing they had more screen time (to replace stupid Charles and Carrie).  Kristin Scott Thomas as Fiona was droll and sneering with a bad word for everyone, but also vulnerable and relatable.  John Hannah (Matthew) and Simon Callow (Gareth) were the real couple to root for.  So subtle in their relationship their own best friends didn’t realize the extent of their commitment, yet so deeply in love that Matthew’s eulogy caused the only real stir of emotion in me while watching the film.  A gay couple who weren’t played as the gay couple.  A May-December relationship not played as a May-December relationship.  It was stunning.  Where’s THAT movie?  Attention Richard Curtis – the Matthew-Gareth RomCom is what you should have made.

source: online-video-company.co.uk
source: online-video-company.co.uk

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