"Four Weddings and a Funeral"
                             A film review by
                           Linda Lopez McAlister
                           on "The Women's Show"
                         WMNF-FM (88.5), Tampa, FL
                              April 16, 1994

   Last night I was tired, headachy, angry, and generally in a funk.  I had to
go see a movie to review for today, and I really wanted one that would buoy my
spirits as well as entertain me.  That ruled out "Serial Mom" and "Mother's
Boys" I suspected and the spate of new art films around town.  I wasn't too
sure about "Four Weddings and a Funeral" either -- sounded a little too
reactionarily heterosexist and gloomy for my taste, but, I decided to give it a
whirl.   Am I glad I did.  It is neither heterosexist nor gloomy.  In fact, it
was an intelligent, witty, good-natured, sometimes quite serious look at modern
day love and commitment (with or without a marriage ceremony) and friendship.

   And it really does take place almost entirely within the confines of four
weddings and one funeral.  We see the characters only on those occasions, over
a period of about two years.  The characters we see are a rather large group of
middle to upper class British people of varying ages and varying degrees of
friendship, centering around a group of five close friends Charles (Hugh
Grant), Scarlett, Gareth, Tom, Matthew and Fiona  who either live or hang out a
lot together and who certainly attend weddings together.  Given their class
status, these weddings are big affairs that almost always include a big sit-
down dinner in a large manor house and a big party afterwards.  Charles,
who seems to have dated every woman in his large circles of friends, may get to
the altar as a best man quite frequently, but he cannot imagine himself making
the commitment that marriage implies.

   Enter Carrie (Andie MacDowell), an American woman who works for Vogue and
who travels in a more glamorous set than Charles.  Nevertheless they are
attracted to one another and Charles, at least, begins to fall in love.
Whether he'll ever be able to acknowledge that fact and express it is a major
question throughout the film.  The plot is too delicious to give away and the
film itself leaves any possible resolution hanging until the very last minutes
so you don't have the feeling ever that you know how it's going to work out.

   How, you ask, can all this heterosexual coupling not at least tinge on
heterosexist.  Well, it turns out that two members of the "gang" Gareth (Simon
Callow) and Matthew (John Hannah) are gay and lovers and are, in many ways, the
most together of the bunch.  Matthew's long speech about his lover is surely
the most memorable and touching scene in the film.  No, the film is not
heterosexist--though it is very much in favor of coupling with the person of
your choice, with or without benefit of clergy.  And it is about how difficult
that sometimes is, even when the people in question are in love.  Sometimes bad
timing gets in the way, colossal bad timing in this film.

  The people here are what's interesting, not only the central gang but their
more distant friends who attend the same weddings and funerals.
Writer/director Mike Newell (whose 1991 film "Enchanted April" you may
remember) does a wonderful job of individuating a huge number of characters and
by the end of the film you almost do feel as though you've seen them at some
wedding or other you've been to.  One of the more interesting characters is
Charles's deaf brother.  The fact that he converses in sign makes for some of
the most amusing moments in the film (a young woman who fancies him is learning
it so as to speak with him and the subtitles reflect exactly what she
says--mistakes and all) and in the end is pivotal to the final convolution of
the plot.

   The cast here is largely fine.  Hugh Grant is surely one of the most
appealing young actors to his the screen since, maybe, Jimmy Stewart showed up
in the 1930s.  Andie MacDowell really doesn't act very well, but she has that
terrific smile, and that suffices here.  The supporting cast couldn't be
better.  So, if you just want to see a good, entertaining, uplifting a dult
film (with adult language and situations) that will dispel headaches and raise
spirits, go see "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

  For the WMNF Women's Show this has been Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and
Film.

  Copyright 1994 by Linda Lopez McAlister.  All rights reserved.  Please do 
not reprint this review without the permission of the author.