YMMV / Four Weddings and a Funeral

• And You Thought It Would Fail: Hugh Grant confessed that during filming, he thought the movie was awful. Once it came out and started becoming a critical and commercial success all around the world, he proved himself completely wrong.
• Award Snub: Despite being up for Best Picture, the film only received one other Oscar nomination, for Richard Curtis' script. Hugh Grant's omission is the most noticeable given he won both the Golden Globe and BAFTA. The latter ceremony proved much kinder to the movie, as it also won for Mike Newell's direction, Kristin Scott Thomas' performance, and took home the top prize while being nominated for plenty more. It is worth noting however, that the competition that year was seen as incredibly stiff, and that a romantic comedy with little in the way of traditional Oscar Bait elements being up for Picture is a rarity.
• Base-Breaking Character: Carrie. Some find her charming and mysterious, others aren't very impressed with her basically dragging Charles along, while marrying another man.
• Designated Hero: Carrie cheats on her fiancé twice and Charles ditches his fiancée at the altar, but we're supposed to root for them to get together.
• Designated Villain: It seems that the writers had Charles reconcile with his least favorite ex, the shrewish Henrietta, because he would have looked like a jerk dumping any of the nicer ones or Fiona. The problem is, she only gets three scenes, none of which makes her look particularly bad—yes, she's all weepy and teary at the second wedding, but that's hardly an uncommon reaction for someone running into an ex. Then she's actually quite nice at the third wedding, apologizing for how she acted at the second one. Presumably, this is why he decided to give their relationship another try, so he ends up looking like a jerk anyway. And yes, she goes so far as to punch him out at the fourth wedding, but considering that it's theirs and he's dumping her at the altar, once again, it's hardly an unusual reaction. It's a relief to see her Happily Married in the closing montage.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Charles's brother David is quite popular for being pretty funny and supportive of his brother at times and avoiding the more problematic Inspirationally Disabled cliches; and Serena, who's really sweet and learns sign language to get to know him better.
  • Lydia and Bernard. Their wedding and moment in the spotlight get wrapped up before the halfway point, but their quirkiness and chemistry cause some fans to consider them the best couple of the movie.
• Fair for Its Day: Yes, the funeral is for one member of a same-sex couple. Yet they are portrayed as a completely accepted part of a group of otherwise straight friends; their relationship is just as valid as any of the others — better, in some ways, with Charles openly stating, "If we can't be like them, what's the point?" — their love has depth and sincerity; the funeral is in no way played for laughs; and in the film's ending montage of happy endings, the one same-sex couple is given the same level of consideration as all the heterosexual wedding photos, even though they couldn't be legally wed at the time the film takes place.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The deleted scene where Charles tells Carrie how he met most of his friends is praised for being short, clever enough, and strengthening the characters' bonds.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Carrie says that she's slept with fewer men than Madonna but more than Princess Di, a joke that seems much more awkward after the latter's premature death in 1997.
  • As well as the "Ha, ha!" moment in the final montage that shows Fiona marrying Prince Charles. Considering how disastrous and ill-fated Charles and Diana's marriage was — something that was well known already — that too can really make one wince nowadays.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • David's girlfriend's tentative attempts to speak to him in sign language, and his smile.
  • After Charles bails out of marrying Henrietta and is feeling terrible about it, and the others aren't exactly impressed with him, Tom pipes up that if he really wasn't sure about marrying her, then he was right not to go through with it. Fiona, who throughout the film has been responding to all Tom's remarks with an irritated "Bugger off, Tom", looks as though she's about to say it again — then she just touches him on the shoulder and says gently, "Quite right, Tom."
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Fiona claims to have once been a lesbian for just fifteen minutes. The Red Nose Day sequel reveals her daughter is a lesbian...and gets married to Charles' daughter!
  • Fiona very briefly hitting on Father Gerald; Rowan Atkinson and Kristin Scott Thomas would later play an absent minded vicar and his frustrated wife in Keeping Mum.
• Jerkass Woobie: The supposedly shrewish Henrietta, who gets her heart broken by Charles twice, the second time being when he leaves her at the altar.
• Memetic Mutation: To this day, "# Of _______ And A _______" or even just "# Of_______" is recognizable as a play on this movie's title.
• Moe:
  • Tom's bumbling nature and speech about seeking a happy, low-drama true love casts him in this role.
  • Bernard and Lydia, due to their cuteness as a couple and how they patiently help the minister who is marrying them when he gets tongue-tied.
  • Fiona, due to her sad but graceful All Love Is Unrequited moments.
  • Serena, due to her clumsy attempts at flirting with sign language.
  • Gareth, due to his non-stop Life of the Party joviality.
• Narm: Andie McDowell doesn't exactly give the most electrifying performance of her career here. Especially "Is it still raining? I hadn't noticed."
• One-Scene Wonder: Rowan Atkinson as the newly appointed priest at wedding two.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Nicola Walker of Unforgotten is half of the "dreadful folk duo" at the first wedding.
  • An example involving someone who became famous in a different field: Amber Rudd is credited as "Aristocracy Co-ordinator" and also briefly appears as an extra, some years before going into politics and rising to the post of Home Secretary.
  • Tom is played by James Fleet, who would later be best known for playing Hugo Horton in The Vicar of Dibley.
• Strangled by the Red String:
  • Charles declares his love for Carrie at their third meeting when they've only slept together twice and haven't even seen or spoken to each other in the months between the three meetings. Then despite eleven months passing, a sufficient amount of time to get over his feelings and get engaged to someone else (and again during which he hasn't seen or spoken to Carrie, or even been made aware of the fact that she'd gotten divorced) Charles ditches his fiancée at the altar to get together with her. They have a grand total of five meetings in the film, the entirety of which likely don't even add up to twenty four hours, but this is supposedly enough for them to decide they want to spend the rest of their lives together. To his credit, Charles does cite how ludicrous it is when he tells her he loves her and when he "proposes", he outright says that they need to spend time getting to know each other.
  • Bernard and Lydia are married within three months of hooking up at the first wedding, though this is tempered by the fact that they've at least known each other for years even if they haven't been dating.
• Tear Jerker: Matthew reading W. H. Auden's "Funeral Blues" at the funeral.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Charles and Carrie, the main couple, aren't quite as endearing as a lot of the supporting cast, such as Disabled Snarker David, the bumbling but gentle Tom, former punk girl Scarlet, Fiona (with her Defrosting the Ice Queen moments and unrequited feelings for Charles), Henrietta (given her on-off relationship with Charles), Bernard and Lydia with their Friendship as Courtship relationship, and Life of the Party gay man Gareth.

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