There are not a lot of romantic comedies nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. By and large, it is a genre that is aimed more towards the hopelessly romantic who often don’t care if the film is derivative so long as the leads are attractive and everyone lives happily ever after. It is this mentality that keeps the Hallmark Channel in business and allowed stars like Matthew McConaughey, Patrick Dempsey, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, and many others gain traction before branching out to bigger, better things. Most of these films are what I refer to as cookie-cutter films, variations on the same themes. They’re innocuous, treacly, sugary delights but generally are not filling the way a full-course meal would be.
That’s not indicative of the entire genre, though. There are films that transcend that and become some of the great films out there. Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle, for instance, makes the leap past genre clichés and opens up viewers to a great discussion about love and loss. You’ve Got Mail, another from writer/director Nora Ephron, looks at relationships as they change in a world growing more dependent on the internet for communication and connectons.
But for every one of these thought-provoking romantic comedies, there are dozens of others that are just the same tired formula repeated over and over again, their sole purpose being to get money out of people who just want to see attractive people falling in love. Rinse and repeat. This type of soulless film turns some audience members jaded whenever they come across a romantic comedy, making it hard for such a film to gain traction in critical circles. For a romantic comedy to break through, then, it either needs to star someone who typically doesn’t make this kind of film, or it needs a premise that is unique enough to stand out amongst the crowd.
Four Weddings and a Funeral didn’t star known actors known for the genre. Hugh Grant had been around for a while, but he was primarily a British actor making lower-budget dramas and horror films at this time. The previous year, he was a supporting player in the Oscar-nominated The Remains of the Day, but that was not a showcase for what he had to offer as an actor. His star wouldn’t really be on the rise for American audiences until 1994 when he accepted the low-budget role of Charles in Four Weddings. This part would make his career, and he would make films for quite some time afterwards playing the romantic lead in lesser movies like Nine Months, Mickey Blue Eyes, and Notting Hill. Looking through his filmography, it feels like, though he has talent elsewhere, his biggest hits have almost always been as the romantic lead.
Acting opposite Hugh Grant is Andie MacDowell, whose career up to that point was all over the place. She had done The Object of Beauty in 1991 and Groundhog Day in 1993, but mostly she was a dramatic actress who acted in concept films like Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Short Cuts. Four Weddings and a Funeral highlighted her abilities as a romantic lead, though she isn’t as heavily featured in the film as you would think she would be. She is charming enough for the part, but this isn’t really a film about her character so much as it is a focus on Charles and his journey towards her.
The film is a series of weddings over the course of many months. Charles is the perpetually late best man who always has an excuse for his tardiness, though it always boils down to sleeping in. At the reception for the first wedding, he meets Carrie (Andie MacDowell), an American woman working in England. They spend the night together, and in the morning, she laments that they may have “missed a great opportunity” as she is leaving to return to the U.S.
Three months go by, and Charles is attending another wedding. At the reception, Charles runs into Carrie once again, having returned to the UK. She is in attendance with her wealthy Scottish fiancé, Hamish (Corin Redgrave). During this reception, Charles is humiliated by several of his ex-girlfriends, including the upset Henrietta (Anna Chancellor), who accuses him of being a serial monogamist, fearful of commitment. He sees Carrie and Hamish leave the reception by taxi, but shortly afterwards, she returns, and he spends another night with her. Not long afterwards, he receives an invitation to her and Hamish’s wedding.
Charles confesses to Carrie that he loves her, but she rebuffs him gently and marries Hamish. But at the reception, one of Charles’s friends, Gareth (Simon Callow), suffers a heart attack and dies. At the funeral, feelings come out about the futility of seeking your “one true love.” This leads to another flash forward, this time to Charles and Henrietta’s wedding day. Charles has decided to settle down and get married, but he is having doubts, primarily because he is still in love with Carrie.
This film says a lot about love and commitment. It also isn’t afraid to paint its leads in an unflattering light. Charles is quick to hop into bed with a woman he knows is already taken. Carrie is spoken for but has no qualms about spending the night with Charles. Because of this, we know right away that either Carrie will not go through with the marriage or the marriage will fall apart. When a relationship is built on a lie, it crumbles. Marriages require a strong foundation to work, and infidelity is virtually incompatible with that.
Charles is an interesting character to focus on, too. He isn’t looking for a commitment and, even though he thinks that has changed later in the film, in the end he still isn’t. His speech to Carrie at the climax is played up as being cute, but what it boils down to is he wants a relationship without the “hassle” of a real commitment. It’s a bit of a repulsive look at relationships and serves to keep his character selfish and immature. In a world where more and more people are ditching marriage as nothing more than an unnecessary legality, we need more fiction that bolsters the happily ever after, especially when the film appears to be showing us a character growing up and discovering what he wants in life. By going this route, it underserves the character and left me disappointed in the resolution. An attempt to soften this with pictures of them in the end credits, together with a child, is only mildly effective.
This may just be my own outlook on life, though, and younger audiences will look at this as having it all without the worry of divorce should the relationship break down. For me, though, the element of marriage adds a degree of trust in the strength of the relationship, giving the couple one more reason to make things work during tough times. It is far too easy to walk away when there is no legal reason to stick it out. Does this mentality make me look old-fashioned to this current generation? Probably. But for me, it is a sticking point that diminishes my enjoyment in this film, especially the ending.
I wanted to really like this movie. But there are just too many downer moments and pessimistic attitudes towards marriage and relationships for me to really jive with it. It’s tonally all over the place, too, with moments that are overly silly juxtaposed with more heartfelt moments. Rowan Atkinson, for instance, is hamming it up as an inexperienced clergyman who bumbles his way through one of the weddings, mixing up names and getting the vows all wrong. It’s funny as a bit but doesn’t fit well with the rest of the film.
The leads are charming enough, and this film launched Hugh Grant into the stratosphere back in the mid-nineties, but ultimately it doesn’t hold up to me. I want to see the old-fashioned optimistic romance that ends with Charles overcoming his selfish ways and marrying Carrie in the end. What I don’t want is his cutsey “Will you not marry me,” bit that left me feeling cold and frustrated. There were so many better films that released in 1994 that it is inconceivable that this one was picked out to represent that year as one of the best pictures at the Oscars.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Duncan Kenworthy
Best Original Screenplay: Richard Curtis
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Release Date: May 13, 1994
Runtime: 117 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott Thomas, Simon Callow, James Fleet, John Hannah, Charlotte Coleman, David Bower, Corin Redgrave, and Rowan Atkinson
Directed by: Mike Newell
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