Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
My fiancée absolutely loves this film. It sits near the very top of her all-time favourites list, and so I went into it with a certain amount of pressure to feel the same way. I didn't, quite, but I can absolutely see what she sees in it, and that tension between my own reaction and hers probably shaped how I watched it more than I'd usually admit.
Let's start with what genuinely impressed me, because there's plenty. The cast is extraordinary. Hugh Grant, Kristin Scott Thomas, James Fleet, a brilliantly bumbling Rowan Atkinson, and a supporting ensemble that reads like a roll call of the best British acting talent of the era. Watching them bounce off each other is genuinely a pleasure, and that alone accounts for a huge chunk of the film's enduring appeal. As a snapshot of 90s UK television and cinema talent, it's hard to beat. You could watch it with the sound off and still feel the warmth radiating off that group.
But here's where I have to be honest. I didn't find it especially funny. Grant's particular brand of floppy-haired, self-deprecating fumbling has become such a familiar shorthand for "charming Englishman" that it now feels more like a performance of a performance. And his treatment of poor Henrietta throughout the film is genuinely difficult to sit with. She's the butt of too many jokes she doesn't deserve, and it's one of those moments where the gap between "product of its time" and "just a bit mean" starts to close uncomfortably. The film asks you to laugh with Charlie at her expense, and I found I couldn't quite get there.
Andie MacDowell, too, is a real problem at the centre of things. The central romance needs to crackle, and it doesn't. Carrie as written is a paper-thin fantasy, and MacDowell doesn't find enough beneath the surface to make you feel why Grant's character is so completely undone by her. A romance lives or dies on whether you buy the pull between the two leads, and I never fully did.
What genuinely surprised me, though, and what I think is the most interesting thing about watching this in 2024, is the treatment of Gareth and Matthew. Their relationship is one of the warmest and most affecting things in the film. And yet there's a scene where Matthew introduces Gareth to strangers as his "close friend" rather than his partner. It's a small moment, easy to miss, but it stopped me cold. It's a quiet, almost matter-of-fact illustration of how things were, and it gives their storyline a poignancy that the film probably didn't fully intend at the time. John Hannah's performance in the film's most emotional scene is genuinely moving, and it's the part of Four Weddings that feels most alive and most lasting to me.
As a cultural time capsule, it's fascinating. The specific texture of 90s Britain, the social awkwardness, the class assumptions baked into every wedding venue and morning suit, the way people talk around things rather than saying them directly. Some of it is charming. Some of it is a bit cringey. All of it is recognisably of its moment, and there's real value in that.
Three stars. A good, highly watchable piece of British film history, and I completely understand why it means so much to so many people, including the person I'm marrying. I just think the hype has calcified around it over thirty years into something bigger than the film itself can quite support. Comforting, warm, and slightly messier than its reputation suggests. Which, honestly, might be the most British thing about it.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 1994 | Watched: 2026-06-21
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: MGM Plus Amazon Channel
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
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