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Title: Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Hugh Grant | ... | Charles - Wedding One | |
| James Fleet | ... | Tom - Wedding One | |
| Simon Callow | ... | Gareth - Wedding One | |
| John Hannah | ... | Matthew - Wedding One | |
| Kristin Scott Thomas | ... | Fiona - Wedding One | |
 |
David Bower | ... | David - Wedding One |
| Charlotte Coleman | ... | Scarlett - Wedding One | |
| Andie MacDowell | ... | Carrie - Wedding One (as Andie Macdowell) | |
|
|
Timothy Walker | ... | Angus the Groom - Wedding One |
| Sara Crowe | ... | Laura the Bride - Wedding One | |
|
|
Ronald Herdman | ... | Vicar - Wedding One |
| Elspet Gray | ... | Laura's Mother - Wedding One | |
| Philip Voss | ... | Laura's Father - Wedding One | |
| Rupert Vansittart | ... | George the Boor at The Boatman - Wedding One | |
| Nicola Walker | ... | Frightful Folk Duo - Wedding One | |
In Britain, slightly bumbling and always tardy Charles (Hugh Grant) and his closest group of friends seem always to be attending weddings, but are never the bride nor groom, and as such, each, with the exception of gay couple Gareth (Simon Callow) and Matthew (John Hannah), is looking for love. At the wedding of their friends, Angus (Timothy Walker) and Laura (Sara Crowe), where Charles is acting as best man, Charles meets an American woman named Carrie (Andie MacDowell). For him, it's love at first sight. She too is attracted to him. Although they spend a memorable evening together, that's all it ends up being. Over three more successive weddings - some of the brides and grooms who are very near and dear to Charles' heart - and one unfortunate funeral, Charles runs into Carrie, but something always seems to prevent the two of them from getting together. He also runs into a plethora of old girlfriends, one of whom he may believe is really the one he was meant to end up with, ... Written by Huggo
The lead character in this film, Charles, says at one point that, while his friends were busily obsessed with marriage, two members of their group were, for all intents and purposes, married to each other. In those days before Britain had a civil partnership law, he was referring to Gareth and Matthew, played by Simon Callow and John Hannah. "Four Weddings and a Funeral" was among the first major films to feature a gay couple without any comment, moralizing, or stereotyping. Considering all of the absurd controversy generated by "Brokeback Mountain," this English comedy may be considered subversive in some quarters, because it portrays the union between the two men to be as loving and enduring as any between the men and a women in the same film. The two gay men are among a circle of idiosyncratic friends that orbit around Charles, who suffers from relationship avoidance. Played engagingly by Hugh Grant, Charles attends the weddings of others, but manages to avoid any commitment of his own. One of the film's funniest scenes involves Charles at a wedding reception where he has been seated at a table with several of his ex-girlfriends. With that one scene, screenwriter Richard Curtis wittily fleshes out Charles's character as each woman remarks on her past experience. The episodic comedy is broken down literally into the five events of the title, and the core characters attend these events as spectators who each hope for a wedding of their own. Many of the lines and situations are extremely funny. Rowan Atkinson steals his brief time as a novice preacher who blesses a couple "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the holy goat." Although Hugh Grant plays Charles as, well, Hugh Grant, several other actors create some fine comic turns. The ravishing Kristin Scott Thomas is touching as the lonely Fiona, and her timing is impeccable when she recovers from an indelicate question with a snappy comeback. Of course, why anyone as beautiful as Kristin Scott Thomas should be unwillingly single is a minor casting flaw in the film. Unfortunately, Andie MacDowell plays the American, Carrie, and, although she looks great in a hat, she fails to generate the necessary charisma to convincingly be Charles's object of desire. However, the low wattage generated by the two leads does little to dampen the hilarity or the pathos of this excellent film. While, at nearly two hours, the movie is long for a comedy, the structure and quirky characters easily sustain interest throughout. With "Four Weddings and a Funeral," director Mike Newell has made one of the best romantic comedies, and the film holds up to repeated viewings.