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Original poster

Jus watched Four Weddings with DD and I have some questions...

47 replies

clary · 30/10/2021 22:37

Inspired by thread about happy films, we enjoyed it for sure, but:

Why is Andie Macdowell in it? so wooden
Why doesn't Hugh marry the lovely Kristen Scott Thomas?
How come Hugh is the only one to know sign language - so when he is not there, none of them talk to David?
Why are they all at the Scottish wedding? Andie can barely have met John Hannah, for instance.
Why is it ok for Hugh and Andie to sleep together when she is engaged?
Why is Lydia so vindictive as to put Hugh on a table with all his exes (ok that's fir comic effect i guess)
How come there is a parking space right outside the church?
Why does Hugh have no luggage with him at wedding one - does he drive home in his morning suit?

OP posts:
Larryyourwaiter · 30/10/2021 22:40

Well I think Andie brought money as a ‘star’.
KST saying ‘slut’ is one of my most favourite movie moments.

PumpkinSpiceGirl · 30/10/2021 22:43

AMcD is the worst thing about an otherwise brilliant film and I generally don’t do ‘chick flicks’

coffeerevelsrock · 30/10/2021 22:44

I don't know the answer to most of these, though I think Richard Curtis is Sexist might suffice for most. As for Andi Macdowell's performance - I don't know at all as she is great in the 5ish other things I've seen her in. The character is just horrible though, so maybe she just didn't feel it?

THisbackwithavengeance · 30/10/2021 22:48

I think Hugh, Fiona, Scarlett and Scottish guy who reads the poem (mental block about name) know each other from university.

Hugh and David are brothers which is why Hugh can sign and the others cannot.

AMD is so miscast but was there - I assume - to win over an American audience.

Ughmaybenot · 30/10/2021 22:48

Oh Four Weddings is honestly one of my absolute all-time favourite films, wouldn’t like to say how many times I’ve watched it.
Andie McDowell is truly awful, and not just because the character is awful (I don’t think it’s meant to be ‘okay’ that she shags someone else while engaged), she’s just so wooden!! No charm.
I’d invite the whole gang of them too, if only to ensure the wonderful Gareth attended… would’ve been better for the atmosphere had he not keeled over of course.

DaisyNGO · 30/10/2021 22:54

Andie MacDowell was not their first choice

Jeanne Tripplehorn had been cast but then her mummy died 😭 and she didn't feel able to work so soon.

That doesn't explain why Andie is so wooden though.

OhWhyNot · 30/10/2021 22:56

I think there are far bigger mysteries of cinema. Like why do so many American women have sex with their bras on

AMD was awful her character isn’t nice but she has no warmth to her. Julia Roberts would have been a far better choice (maybe she was too famous by then)

Anyway I love the film, HG is brilliant

Brilliant casting apart from AMD

overnightangel · 30/10/2021 22:58

@DaisyNGO

Andie MacDowell was not their first choice

Jeanne Tripplehorn had been cast but then her mummy died 😭 and she didn't feel able to work so soon.

That doesn't explain why Andie is so wooden though.

Ah Jeanne Tripplehorn would’ve been much better !
PermanentTemporary · 30/10/2021 22:59

Hate to say it but I think Jeanne Tripplehorn would actually have been worse Shock could they not have found a comedienne or at least someone with a sense of humour? Drew Barrymore? Janeane Garofalo?

I do think Handie McTowell's part was terribly written. She doesn't make much sense as a character.

dayswithaY · 30/10/2021 22:59

Hugh didn't fancy Kristin ST and didn't know she was in love with him. Plus he was in love with Andie McDowell - who looked old enough to be his Mum.

Thefartingsofaofdenmarkstreet · 30/10/2021 23:01

The character of Carrie is just such an awful person in it, what the hell does Charles see in her?

I never understood why they all went to Carrie's wedding to Hamish either.

stressysal · 30/10/2021 23:02

AMD is perhaps my least favourite character in a film ever. The way she takes Hugh wedding dress shopping with her knowing full well he loves her, then turns up at his wedding to tell him about her divorce...she just messes the poor sap about. And don't get me started on 'Is it still raining, I hadn't noticed' - Envy

I think the point is they are all supposed to move in the same circles hence them being at the same weddings. And it's set in the 90s when it was customary to have these massive weddings with literally every person you've ever met present.

Kristin ST character is great but the whole point is that she loves hugh from afar and has done without him clocking on for several years.

Such a good film but it annoys me that AMD is the leading lady amongst so many stronger, nicer female characters.

MeredithGreyishblue · 30/10/2021 23:03

"And not so much as a tongue in sight..."

Grin

I was at a work event last weekend and someone was dancing like Simon Callow. She made my night.

Leavisite · 30/10/2021 23:05

Hugh is the brother of the deaf man whose name escapes me, and I don’’t think he’s particularly friends with the rest of them, which might explain why only Hugh signs until the woman in the Laura Ashley floral dress and plait learns!

He doesn’t marry lovely Fiona because he regards her as pretty much his sister.

The supposed reason Carrie invites people she’s only met at a couple of weddings to her own is to counter ‘all the gruesome stiffs Hamish knows’, but I just accepted it as one of the deeply unlikely things that happens in rom coms.

I think we’re supposed to be fine with Carrie shagging Charles because Hamish is cast as deeply dislikeable twat.

In fact I think one of the more unlikely things in the film is why Carrie marries someone so awful, even briefly. And why Charles even gets to the altar with the demented Duckface.

I was vaguely baffled by mildly posh Charles having Cockney Scarlett as his flat mate, but apparently there was a backstory in the screenplay about him finding her under the table at a party.

thanksamillion · 30/10/2021 23:05

I'm pretty sure AMD says something about being glad Hugh and friends were all there because the other guests were all Hamish's.

dayswithaY · 30/10/2021 23:06

Doesn't Andie/Carrie explain that she doesn't know many people in the UK and that's why she invites them all to her wedding?

Original poster
clary · 30/10/2021 23:07

Glad you all agree about AMcD. I think Julia R would have been better.

Re David - yes I know that Hugh is his brother, but what about the night after wedding one - Hugh has bogged off to shag Carrie, so David has the journey home and the evening and the next morning and no one talks to him? If they had all been mates for a while, surely they would have learned to sign a bit? At the end, John Hannah asks Hugh to translate.

OP posts:
MyPatronusIsAPenguin · 30/10/2021 23:09

Charlotte Coleman was always the best character in it. But I also watched Marmalade Atkins showing my age. Such a waste she died so young Sad

Original poster
clary · 30/10/2021 23:17

I love the film btw and always have.

Agree re "is it still raining?" too. ugh. Also her awful wedding speech - "if it doesn't work out, I'll get back to you"

OP posts:
Clawdy · 30/10/2021 23:21

I always thought Kristen ST looked too old for Hugh, although I know in real life that's not so.

NoYOUbekind · 30/10/2021 23:25

@MyPatronusIsAPenguin

Charlotte Coleman was always the best character in it. But I also watched Marmalade Atkins showing my age. Such a waste she died so young Sad
Lovely Charlotte Coleman was my celebrity lookalikey. We were the same height too! She was so young, god love her.
Bringonthepjs · 30/10/2021 23:26

Such a brilliant film even now,

My East, My West Sad

SickAndTiredAgain · 30/10/2021 23:27

@PermanentTemporary

Hate to say it but I think Jeanne Tripplehorn would actually have been worse Shock could they not have found a comedienne or at least someone with a sense of humour? Drew Barrymore? Janeane Garofalo?

I do think Handie McTowell's part was terribly written. She doesn't make much sense as a character.

Drew Barrymore would only have been 19, and 15 years younger than Hugh Grant.

I know they play opposite each other in music and lyrics and I think the age gap is a bit big in that, but they’re older so it isn’t as bad.

lljkk · 30/10/2021 23:28

Andie MacD was great in Sex Lies & VideoTape -- or even GroundHog Day. I don't know what she was trying to do in 4W&AF. Be an alluring snob? Her character was supposed to be... something. Like an unobtainable goddess. Just comes across as selfish pointless cow instead, though.

Many deaf ppl can lip read very well, so I imagine that's how David mostly gets by. Hugh (serial romantic blunderer) and AMcD's character deserved each other, maybe.

KST : I guess the problem is she was too obtainable to be desirable.

I like HG best when he plays total cads & villains.

dayswithaY · 30/10/2021 23:30

An alluring snob is such an accurate description of her!