THE FILM:

While it is not my favorite British comedy, this Mike Newell/Richard Curtis/Hugh Grant collaboration was once the highest grossing British film of all time and has many devoted fans. The precursor to a British-American collaboration wave for Grant that included Sense and Sensibility, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary, Four Weddings and a Funeral gave the then 34-year-old actor name recognition in the United States. Set amid the social encounters of a group of friends, the film sees Grant's bachelor Charles fall for American Carrie (Andie MacDowell) at a wedding, sleep with her, part ways, and then spend the better part of the next two years chasing her affections. Fluffy but plenty funny, with warm performances and believable courting high jinks, Four Weddings and a Funeral remains an entertaining comedy 25 years on.

Charles diligently attends the special days of friends, though he is often late and dragging his female roommate Scarlett (Charlotte Coleman). Charles has a habit of talking too much, pissing people off inadvertently with thoughtless remarks and walking into stationary objects. But he is played by Grant, so Charles is still inherently likeable. He and Carrie meet at the first of the film's four weddings, but they do not become a couple after their one-night stand. Instead, the film moves forward to another wedding, where Carrie arrives with her fiancée, Sir Hamish Banks (Corin Redgrave), and the ghosts of Charles' romantic past arrive to haunt him. Over the course of two more weddings and the unexpected funeral of a close friend, Charles attempts to turn his stag life around.

Four Weddings and a Funeral offers the nifty plot device of jumping months forward in time to the aforementioned social occasions, which requires viewers to surmise what happened in the interim. This is actually quite effective, as it allows the film to contrast Charles' stuck-in-neutral love life with the quick developments in the lives of his friends. The day-to-day monotony of these characters is less important than their overall maturations, and Director Newell hits the highlights effectively. Grant is typically charming, though the film occasionally relies too heavily on slapstick humor, and MacDowell is a formidable counterpart. Carrie and Charles have a frank discussion about sexual partners, which upsets Charles, in one of the film's best dramatic scenes, and the actors share a fair bit of honest chemistry.

The supporting cast of friends, including Lydia (Sophie Thompson), Bernard (David Haig), Fiona (Kristin Scott Thomas), Tom (James Fleet) and Gareth (Simon Callow) adds much to the film, and look out for Rowan Atkinson playing a very ineffective wedding officiant. The dramatic mishaps here rarely dive below surface level, but that is not really the point. Four Weddings and a Funeral relies heavily on the charms of its stars and the writing of Curtis, a longtime Grant collaborator, to charm, and charm it does. I am always surprised when fans of Love Actually say they have never seen Four Weddings and a Funeral, as this film paved the way for well-known movies like that and Two Weeks Notice. At 25 years old, Four Weddings and a Funeral remains a brisk, entertaining comedy worth revisiting or experiencing for the first time.

THE BLU-RAY:

PICTURE:

For its Blu-ray release, Shout! Factory provides a 1.85:1/1080p/AVC-encoded image that comes from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative. The results are largely impressive. Although Four Weddings and a Funeral is certainly not a flashy film, this HD image offers excellent clarity and improved texture over previous releases. Colors are not especially bold but are appropriately saturated, black levels remain steady, and highlights do not bloom. Wide shots are crisp and clean, close-ups reveal intimate facial details and costume intricacies, and film grain is natural in motion. Overall, this is a nice upgrade.

SOUND:

The disc offers 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio mixes. These are competent to support this dialogue-driven film. The 5.1 mix offers better ambience and surround interplay, but some of the music cues are a bit muddy. Dialogue is crisp and clear throughout on each, and the elements are nicely balanced. English SDH subtitles are included.

PACKAGING AND EXTRAS:

This single-disc "25th Anniversary Edition" arrives in a standard case with two-sided artwork that is wrapped in a slipcover. Extras include an Audio Commentary by Director Mike Newell, Producer Duncan Kenworthy and Writer Richard Curtis; The Wedding Photographer (26:31/HD), an interesting new piece about cinematographer Michael Coulter in which the filmmaker discusses his work here and on other projects; Wedding Planners (29:41/SD), an older making-of piece; In the Making (7:34/SD), a shorter EPK featurette; Two Actors and a Director (5:33/SD), about Grant, MacDowell and Newell; Deleted Scenes (9:58/SD); Promotional Spots (3:27/SD); and a Theatrical Trailer (2:08/HD).

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Fans of Four Weddings and a Funeral who do not own the film will want to scoop up Shout! Factory's new "25th Anniversary Edition" Blu-ray. If you own the disc already, the two draws here are a new 4K scan and one new half-hour featurette. The film that introduced Hugh Grant to American audiences remains a briskly entertaining bit of comedy froth. Recommended.

William lives in Burlington, North Carolina, and looks forward to a Friday-afternoon matinee.