Four Weddings & A Funeral MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +3 1/2 Content: -2

From Mike Newell, the director of ENCHANTED APRIL, comes another romantic comedy set in England. This one focuses on a group of 30-something single friends as they attend four upscale weddings. Their camaraderie is both humorous and refreshing. In the first wedding, best man Charles (Hugh Grant), who's always running late, discovers at the altar that he has forgotten the rings. His frantic solution sets the pace for this very funny film. At this wedding, strikingly beautiful Carrie (Andie MacDowell) catches his eye and his heart. She appears at the second wedding a few months later, but with her Scottish fiance. Though Charlie loves Carrie, he lets her slip away because he cannot commit to marriage. The third wedding is her own, the fourth his own. One of the wedding guests collapses and dies at Carrie's reception, adding to Charlie's sadness. Ultimately, however, there is a happy ending with Charlie asking Carrie, "Would you consider not marrying me for the rest of your life?" So they don't marry and live happily ever after. This clever, original film with a great supporting cast will be a big hit with the single crowd.

The major problem with FOUR WEDDINGS concerns its flippant treatment of premarital sex. The first time they meet, Carrie, a "woman of the 90s," entices a shy Charlie into bed. Later, she shares with him a run-down of the 33 lovers she has had. The two are shown in bed together twice, once with obscured nudity. Another prolonged scene shows a newly married couple, still in their wedding clothes, engaged in sex. Another negative is the heavy drinking at each wedding reception. The unending flow of champagne results in one of the guests suffering a fatal seizure. The funeral includes a very touching eulogy by the stricken man's homosexual partner. Actually, this tragedy makes the merry-makers aware of how fleeting life can be and the importance of a "significant other" in their lives. Charlie decides he must marry, even if he can't have Carrie, which leads to a disastrous fourth wedding. In this R-rated comedy, Charlie mumbles the f-word over and over every time he leaps out of bed, late again. If the setting is contemporary, the content has to have sex and offensive language. Why?

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Gramercy Pictures, 9247 Alden Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210