| Four Weddings and a Funeral | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mike Newell |
| Written by | Richard Curtis |
| Produced by | Duncan Kenworthy |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Michael Coulter |
| Edited by | Jon Gregory |
| Music by | Richard Rodney Bennett |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Rank Film Distributors PolyGram Filmed Entertainment |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 117 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | £3 million[1] ($4.4 million[2]) |
| Box office | £218.5 milion ($245.7 million[3]) |
Four Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 Britishromantic comedy film directed byMike Newell. It is the first of several films by screenwriterRichard Curtis to starHugh Grant, and follows the adventures of Charles (Grant) and his circle of friends through a number of social occasions as they each encounter romance.Andie MacDowell co-stars as Charles's love interest Carrie, withKristin Scott Thomas,James Fleet,Simon Callow,John Hannah,Charlotte Coleman,David Bower,Corin Redgrave andRowan Atkinson in supporting roles.
The film was made in six weeks, cost under £3 million,[1] and became an unexpected success and thehighest-grossing British film in history at the time, with a worldwide box office total of $245.7 million, and receivedAcademy Award nominations forBest Picture andBest Original Screenplay. Additionally, Grant won theGolden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and theBAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and the film won theBAFTA Awards'Best Film,Best Direction, andBest Actress in a Supporting Role for Scott Thomas. The film's success propelled Hugh Grant to international stardom, particularly in the United States.[4]
In 1999,Four Weddings and a Funeral was placed 23rd on theBritish Film Institute's100 greatest British films of the 20th century. In 2016,Empire magazine ranked it 21st in their list of the 100 best British films.[5] A 2017 poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics forTime Out magazine ranked it the 74th-best British film ever.[6]
Curtis reunited director Newell and the surviving cast for a 25th-anniversary reunionComic Relief short entitledOne Red Nose Day and a Wedding, which aired in the UK duringRed Nose Day on 15 March 2019.[7]
At the wedding of Angus and Laura inSomerset, the perpetually late best man Charles, his flatmate Scarlett, his aristocratic friend Fiona and her brother Tom, Gareth and his partner Matthew, and Charles's deaf brother David, all gather. All are unmarried. At the reception, Charles meets Carrie, an American woman working in England. They spend the night together. In the morning, Carrie, who is returning to the U.S., laments that they may have, "missed a great opportunity".
Three months later, at the London wedding of Bernard and Lydia, Tom is the best man. At the reception, Charles runs into Carrie, who has returned to the UK. With Carrie is Hamish, her older, wealthy Scottish fiancé. Meanwhile, a pretty young woman, Serena, is attracted to David.
During the reception, Charles is humiliated by several ex-girlfriends, including the distraught Henrietta, who claims Charles is a "serial monogamist" fearful of commitment. Charles retreats to an empty hotel suite and notices Carrie and Hamish departing by taxi, though Carrie returns to the reception shortly after; she and Charles spend a second night together.
A month later, Charles receives an invitation to Carrie and Hamish's wedding. Charles runs into Carrie while searching for a wedding gift. He then helps Carrie choose a wedding dress. After, Charles awkwardly confesses he loves her, which Carrie gently rebuffs.
A month later, Charles and his friends attend Carrie and Hamish's wedding. Scarlett meets Chester, a Texan, at the reception. Henrietta introduces her new boyfriend to Charles. Fiona, aware of Charles's unhappiness over Carrie, admits she loves him. Charles, though sympathetic, does not reciprocate her feelings. During Hamish's speech, Gareth suffers a fatal heart attack.
At Gareth's funeral, Carrie and Charles share a brief moment, while Charles and Tom then ponder that, despite their clique's pride in being single, Gareth and Matthew were like a "married" couple. They wonder whether seeking "one true love" is futile.
Ten months later, it is Charles and Henrietta's wedding. While seating guests, Tom meets his distant cousin, Deirdre, whom he has not seen since childhood; they are immediately smitten with each other. Scarlett and Chester are overjoyed to meet again.
Carrie arrives and tells Charles that she and Hamish have separated following a difficult marriage. Charles has an emotional crisis inside the church's back room. After David and Matthew counsel him, Charles decides to proceed with the ceremony. When thevicar asks whether anyone has a reason why the couple should not marry, David uses sign language to say the groom has doubts and loves someone else. Charles confirms this, and a furious Henrietta punches him at the altar, knocking him out and ending the ceremony.
Later at his flat, Charles and the group are discussing the fiasco when Carrie arrives to apologise for causing trouble. Charles again says he loves her and proposes a lifelong commitment without marriage, which Carrie accepts. As they kiss, a thunderbolt flashes across the sky.
In an ending photo montage, Henrietta has married an Army officer; David married Serena; Scarlett has married Chester, the Texan; Tom married Deirdre; Matthew has found a new male partner; Fiona is shown withPrince Charles; and Charles and Carrie have had their first child.
ScreenwriterRichard Curtis's own experiences as a wedding attendee inspiredFour Weddings and a Funeral.[8] According to Curtis, he began writing the script at age 34, after realising he had attended 65 weddings in an 11-year period. At one wedding, he was propositioned by a fellow guest, but he turned her down and forever regretted it; accordingly, he based the origin of Charles and Carrie's romance on that situation.[8]
It took Curtis 17 drafts to reach the final version. He initially planned the film as 'Four Weddings and a Honeymoon' but introduced the funeral theme on the advice ofHelen Fielding.[9] He has commented on director Mike Newell's influence; "I come from a school where making it funny is what matters. Mike was obsessed with keeping it real. Every character, no matter how small, has a story, not just three funny lines. It's a romantic film about love and friendship that swims in a sea of jokes."[10]
Curtis chose to omit any mention of the characters' careers, because he did not think a group of friends would realistically discuss their jobs while together at a wedding.[8]
Curtis, Newell and the producers began the casting process forFour Weddings in early 1992.Alex Jennings was cast as Charles, but funding for the production fell through in mid-1992.[11] Jennings would eventually go on to play a supporting role in Mindy Kaling's2019 television miniseries adaptation of the film. The team continued holding auditions for over a year, seeing roughly 70 actors for the role of Charles before Hugh Grant.[4]
Grant was ready to give up acting as a career when he received the script forFour Weddings and a Funeral; he stated in 2016 that: "I wasn't really getting any work at all, and then to my great surprise this script came through the letterbox from my agent, and it was really good. And I rang on and said there must be a mistake, you've sent me a good script."[12] Initially, writer Richard Curtis, who had modelled the character of Charles after himself, was opposed to casting Grant in the role, because he thought Grant was too handsome. Curtis favoured castingAlan Rickman, but Rickman refused to audition. Curtis was eventually persuaded by Newell and the producers to approve Grant's casting.[13]
Jeanne Tripplehorn was originally cast as Carrie, but she had to drop out before filming when her mother died.[14] The role was offered toMarisa Tomei, but she turned it down because her grandfather was sick at the time.[15]Sarah Jessica Parker was also reportedly considered. Andie MacDowell was in London doing publicity forGroundhog Day when she read the script[16] and was subsequently cast.[8] MacDowell took a 75% cut in her fee to appear, receiving $250,000 upfront, but due to the success of the film, she earned around $3 million.[17]
Grant's participation hit another stumbling block when his agent requested a £5,000 rise over the £35,000 salary Grant was offered. The producers initially refused because of the extremely tight budget, but eventually agreed. The supporting cast members were paid £17,500 apiece.[18]
Duncan Kenworthy produced the film while on sabbatical fromJim Henson Productions.[17] Pre-production for the movie was a long process because funding was erratic, falling through in mid-1992 and leading to much uncertainty.[4] Finally, in early 1993,Working Title Films stepped in to close the gap. Nonetheless, another $1.2 million was cut just before production began in the summer of 1993, forcing the film to be made in just 36 days with a final budget of £2.7 million (approximately $4.4 million in 1994).[4]Channel Four Films contributed £800,000.[17] The budget was so tight that extras had to wear their own wedding clothes, while Rowan Atkinson appeared as a vicar at two of the weddings so production would not have to pay another actor.[8]
FutureHome Secretary andMember of Parliament (MP)Amber Rudd was given the credit of "Aristocracy Coordinator" after she arranged for several aristocrats to make uncredited appearances as wedding extras, includingPeregrine Cavendish, who was at the time Marquess of Hartington, and theEarl of Woolton, who conveniently wore their ownmorning suits.[8]
To make Grant look more nerdy, the producers styled him with shaggy hair, glasses and deliberately unflattering, ill-fitting clothes.[19][20] Grant was encouraged by director Mike Newell to mess up and trip over his lines, written in "convolutedsyntax" as Grant describes them, in order to give Charles a stammering, nervous quality.[20] Grant, who struggled withhay fever throughout filming, was unsure of Newell's direction and his performance, which he thought was "atrocious." Regarding Newell, Grant commented that: "He seemed to be giving direction against what I thought were the natural beats of the comedy. He was making a film with texture, grounding it, playing the truths rather than the gags".[10]
The film was shot mainly in London and theHome Counties, including:Hampstead,Islington where the final moments take place on Highbury Terrace,Greenwich Hospital,Betchworth in Surrey,Amersham in Buckinghamshire, the village ofSarratt in Hertfordshire (wedding number one),St Bartholomew-the-Great church in London (wedding number four), andSt Clement's Church,West Thurrock in Essex (the funeral).[21] Exterior shots of guests arriving for the funeral were filmed in Thurrock, Essex, overlooking the River Thames with the backdrop of theDartford River Crossing and the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge.
Stately homes inBedfordshire (Luton Hoo for the wedding two's reception) andHampshire provided exteriors for weddings.[22]
According to Hugh Grant, the initial screening of a rough cut ofFour Weddings went very badly.
"I thought we'd screwed it up. When we went to watch a rough cut, all of us, me, Richard Curtis, Mike Newell, the producers, all thought this was the worst film that's ever been perpetrated. We're gonna go and emigrate to Peru when it comes out so no one can actually find us. And then they had a, a few cuts later they took it toSanta Monica for a test screening and everyone loved it. And it was a great surprise."[12]
Throughout production,Gramercy Pictures, the U.S. distributor for the film, sent frequent transatlantic faxes objecting to the explicit language and sexual content, fearing the final product would not be suitable for American distribution or television airings.[4] They particularly objected to the opening scene of the movie, in which Charles and Scarlett say the word "Fuck" over and over, after an initial screening of the movie inSalt Lake City led the conservativeMormon members of the city council to walk out.[8][13] Accordingly, Mike Newell and the actors agreed to reshoot the scene with the British swear word "Bugger" to be used in the American version.[8] The executives also objected to the title, believingFour Weddings and a Funeral would turn off male viewers from the film. In its place they suggested such titles asTrue Love and Near Misses,Loitering in Sacred Places,Skulking Around andRolling in the Aisles, none of which were accepted.[4]
Theoriginal score was composed by British composerRichard Rodney Bennett. The movie also featured a soundtrack of popular songs, including acover version ofThe Troggs' "Love Is All Around" performed byWet Wet Wet that remained at number 1 on theUK Singles Chart for fifteen weeks and was then the ninth biggest selling single of all time in Britain. This song would later be adapted into "Christmas Is All Around" and sung by the character of Billy Mack in Richard Curtis' 2003 filmLove Actually, in which Grant also stars. The soundtrack album sold more than 750,000 units.[17]
Four Weddings and a Funeral had its world premiere in January 1994 at theSundance Film Festival inSalt Lake City, Utah.[4]
It opened in the United States on 11 March 1994 in five theatres. The box office receipts from the first five days of the film's general release in the United States so impressed the movie's distributor that it decided to spend lavishly on promotion, buying full-page newspaper ads and TV-spots totaling some $11 million.[4] The movie also benefited from much free publicity because of Grant's reception in the United States, where he became an instantsex symbol and undertook a successful media tour promoting the film.[13] Producer Duncan Kenworthy stated that "It was the most amazing luck that when Hugh went on the publicity trail, he turned out to be incredibly funny, and very like the character of Charles. That doesn't ever happen."[4] The film had awide release in the United States on 15 April 1994.
At the UK premiere inLeicester Square on 11 May 1994, Hugh Grant's then-girlfriendElizabeth Hurley garnered much publicity for the film when she wore ablack Versace safety-pin dress which became a sensation in the press.[4] The film opened in the UK on 13 May 1994.
Four Weddings and a Funeral received critical acclaim.[23][24] On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's critics consensus states, "Hugh Grant ably snatches up the bouquet of leading man status withFour Weddings and a Funeral, a sparkling romantic comedy given real charm by its chummy ensemble and Richard Curtis' sharp-witted screenplay."[25]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[26]
Film criticRoger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four, calling it "delightful and sly", and directed with "light-hearted enchantment" by Newell. He praised Grant's performance, describing it as a kind of "endearing awkwardness".[27]Todd McCarthy ofVariety called it a "truly beguiling romantic comedy" which was "frequently hilarious without being sappily sentimental or tiresomely retrograde."[28] Producer Duncan Kenworthy later attributed much of the success ofFour Weddings at the box office to McCarthy's review.[4]
Writing for theChicago Reader,Jonathan Rosenbaum called the film "generic" and "standard issue", stating that the audience should not "expect to remember it ten minutes later".[29]Time magazine writerRichard Corliss was less scathing, but agreed that it was forgettable, saying that people would "forget all about [the movie] by the time they leave the multiplex," even joking at the end of his review that he had forgotten the film's name.[30]
Upon itslimited release in the United States,Four Weddings and a Funeral opened with $138,486 from five theatres.[31] In itswide release, the film topped thebox office with $4.2 million.[32] The film would go on to gross $52.7 million in the United States and Canada.[2]
In the United Kingdom, the film grossed £1.4 million in its opening weekend, a record for a UK production,[33] and £2.7 million in its opening week from 211 theatres. It wasnumber one for nine consecutive weeks, grossing £27.8 million, making it thesecond-highest-grossing film of all time in the United Kingdom behindJurassic Park.[17][34][35] It surpassedA Fish Called Wanda as the highest-grossing British film.[36] In France, it wasnumber one at the box office for ten weeks, grossing $34.4 million.[37] It was alsonumber one at the Australian box office for five weeks and was the second-highest-grossing film of the year, grossing $A21.4 million.[38][39][40] Overall, it grossed $245.7 million worldwide, generating the highest percentage return on cost of films released in 1994.[2][41] The success of the film cleared Working Title's past losses and generated over $50 million for Polygram, clearing most of their losses in the four years since they started producing films.[17]
The film was voted the 27th-greatestcomedy film of all time by readers ofTotal Film in 2000. In 2004, the same magazine named it the 34th-greatest British film of all time. It is number 96 onBravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
The Guardian, in a 20th-anniversary retrospective ofFour Weddings, stated that "Its influence on the British film industry, on romantic-comedy writing, on the pop charts, on funeral readings, onhaircuts, was enormous."[4]
Hugh Grant commented in 2016 on the experience of the film's phenomenal success and its effect on his career: "I was makingAn Awfully Big Adventure at the time thatFour Weddings came out, with Mike Newell again, same director, even tinier budget, in Dublin. And we'd get back from brutal days on the set, very long and no money, and the fax machines...were coming out saying that now your filmFour Weddings is #5 in America, now it's #3, now it's #1 and here's an offer Hugh, forCaptain Blood and they'll pay you $1 million. It was completely surreal."[12]
It was reported in November 2017 that the streaming serviceHulu was developing aneponymous anthology television series based upon the film, to be written and executive produced byMindy Kaling andMatt Warburton, withRichard Curtis also serving as an executive producer.[82] In October 2018, it was announcedJessica Williams,Nikesh Patel,Rebecca Rittenhouse andJohn Reynolds had joined the cast.[83] The miniseries premiered on 31 July 2019.
On 5 December 2018, it was announced that Richard Curtis had writtenOne Red Nose Day and a Wedding,[84] a 25th-anniversary Comic Relief television reunion short film. The original film's director,Mike Newell, returned, along with the film's surviving cast, includingHugh Grant,Andie MacDowell,Kristin Scott Thomas,John Hannah,Rowan Atkinson,James Fleet,David Haig,Sophie Thompson,David Bower, Robin McCaffrey,Anna Chancellor,Rupert Vansittart,Simon Kunz,Sara Crowe andTimothy Walker.[7] It was filmed on 13–14 December 2018 atSt James' Church, Islington,London.[85] It centered on the reunion of all the characters from the original film at the wedding of Charles and Carrie's daughter to Fiona's daughter.[86] The involvement of additional cast membersLily James andAlicia Vikander, who played the young couple getting married, was not announced until the day the film aired in the UK.[87] The film aired in the U.S. on their Red Nose Day on 23 May 2019.[88]
Four Weddings was actually released in the US two months before its UK debut, by which time, it had already garnered critical acclaim
winning positive reviews at the Sundance Film Festival
$3,970,220; £1=$1.49
