Given the many accolades assigned to this film over the years (not the least of which are Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay Oscar Nominations), I was expecting a classic, top-tier romantic comedy on the order of When Harry Met Sally. Unfortunately, Four Weddings and a Funeral fell well short of those lofty expectations.



The sad part is that the film does a great many things well. The movie has many funny moments and the ensemble cast is mostly exceptional, especially amongst Charles' highly eclectic group of friends. However, it suffers from one fatal flaw: the female lead is terrible.



Andie MacDowell's Carrie has all the charisma of a piece of upholstery (and a cheap one, at that). A combination of a poor performance and a poorly fleshed out character arc combine to make her perhaps one of the least interesting cinematic romantic interests of all time. There is very little chemistry between she and Hugh Grant, nor is any indication really given of what attracts Charles to her outside of the fact that she owns a nice hat and is a demon in the sack. She has one good line after the first time she and Charles get busy, and that essentially ends her contribution to the film.



While entertaining in parts, the lack of an even adequate female lead (both a function of the actress and the script) kills this highly overrated film.



Also this particular iteration of the DVD is terrible. It is a dual-layered disc, with the widescreen edition on one side and the fullscreen on the other. However the "widescreen" edition is shown letterboxed... on my widescreen labtop it still displays at a 4:3 ratio with letterbox bars, unnecessarily shrinking the image. Also, someone at the studio apparently thought it would be a good idea to have English and French audio options, but subtitles available only in Spanish. If you are a fan of the film, you're probably better off going with the 2006 Deluxe Edition.