Sunday 22 April 2012

Four Weddings and a Funeral

How many movies would you know wherein the 3rd dialogue of the movie would be “Fuck” and then the next few words would be the same hallowed F word that we so regularly use in our day to day lives. Now don’t mention Good Fellas here where the average time between an explitive as per an urban legend, less than 10 seconds. I am as of now referring to one of the finest romantic comedies ever made to date.

And not only that but also an example of fine British Screenplay from Richard Curtis (Notting Hill, Bridget Jones Diary). One which strikes a phenomenal balance between splendid British humour and the serious parts of people’s lives. With lines such as the one Gareth (Simon Callow) says in the true spirit of urging his friends to get married, “A toast before we go into battle. True love. In whatever shape or form it may come. May we all in our dotage be proud to say, "I was adored once too."”.

Or the lines by W H Auden at Gareth’s funeral which drive you to the brink of tears if not completely break you down. It is not for any random reason that I was confused between RomCom and Drama as the genre for Four Weddings and a Funeral. I decided to go with the former because despite the poignant funeral sequence, at his heart and I am quite certain that Gareth would not want it to be called Drama.

Some of the other adorable lines from the movie can be found in the links given below
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109831/quotes
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Four_Weddings_and_a_Funeral

Four Weddings and a Funeral traces the lives of Charles (Hugh Grant) and his circle of friends which include Gareth, Fiona (Kirsten Scott Thomas), (John Hannah) and his absolutely cute in the truest form of the word sister Scarlett (Charlotte Coleman). Charles bumps into Carrie (Andie MacDowell) at a wedding and over the next 3 weddings with a funeral in between, falls in love with Carrie, expresses his love to her only to see her get married to a rich Scotsman – all in extremely hilarious circumstances.

What adds to the superb screenplay and cinematography are the picture perfect performances of every single person of the cast including the lesser significant parts of the cast such as Bernard (David Haig) and Lydia (Sophie Thompson). A movie that must not only be on your must watch list but also on your must buy soundtrack list for its absolutely brilliant use of songs from the likes of Elton John to Carpenters to Gloria Gaynor.

All of this sewn up beautifully by Mike Newell (Notting Hill, Mona Lisa Smile). If you haven’t watched it, you must must must pick up this 1994 classic at the earliest. One movie that I will remember most fondly from my growing up days. 8 on 10 is what I say.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi665321753/

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