Breakthrough Performances That Make You Feel Old for $500, Alex

The Movie: Four Weddings and a Funeral, directed by Mike Newell
Recommendation: Von Gauzen
Reason: "This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and you don't want to watch anything depressing right now."

So, as I've said, I really don't like straight-up romantic comedies. They're sappy drivel, blah blah blah. Gonna have to go on record right now and revise that statement. Yes, they're sappy and I still don't like a lot of them, but not every non-twist romantic comedy straight up sucks. Four Weddings and a Funeral, the precursor to such gems as Love Actually and Notting Hill, did not suck. What does this mean for my movie watching career? Well, I think I'm about to be much more open to this sort of suggestion in the future, as long as Hollywood had nothing to do with the production (movies made before 1995 probably being the exception).

I'm going to blame the writer entirely for this movie being so entertaining. Though it was a little uneven in parts, it's a definite classic. The emotion of the funeral scene was perfectly amped both by John Hannah's performance and by the script he was given (and I know Richard Curtis didn't write the beautiful poem Hannah recited, but he picked it). The dry delivery of the majority of the film's characters was excellent alongside his writing. Though I felt some of the plot points were a little weak compared to his later work (Love Actually, ahem, WATCH THE MOVIE, PEOPLE!), his writing really shone in his character development. The group of friends was believable, right and natural. Partially the responsibility of the actors, of course, but the writer does need to be given his due for such excellent dialouge.

And now to address the title of this little review. Four Weddings and a Funeral must be forgiven for bestowing Hugh Grant on us across the pond. I generally really dislike him, but in this movie he was still fresh. Watching him in his first 'major' role (silly as that is, as half his career was behind him at that point) was quite nice. I'm still not his biggest fan, but at least I can see where they're coming from. Kristen Scott Thomas, on the other hand, was absolutely remarkable as usual. I'm not certain a single bad performance can be given by that woman. The rest of the cast was great, but she was the one who really shone. What's with me and Supporting Actresses lately, huh?

-30/365 down, 335/365 to go