End Four Weddings example essay topic

from the Empire Online This Year's Love Opens: 19/02/1999 UK Starring: Kathy Burke, Ian Hart, Catherine McCormack, Dougray Scott Director: David Kane Screenwriter: David Kane Details: 1 hr. 58 mins. Cert. 18 (tbc) UK A six-way couple-swapping romp set in London's trendy Camden Town.

The early word on this David Kane-helped Brit flick has been favourable, pitching it as a rival to Notting Hill (the Julia Roberts-Hugh Grant romancer from the Four Weddings And A Funeral team) as this year's Full Monty. Not that it's hard for home-generated fare to stand out just now amid film ic carbuncles such as The Acid House. The action in This Year's Love centres around a group of late 20's / early 30's drifter types each having a stab at happiness in contemporary London. On the girls's ide there's airport cleaner Marey (Burke), a no-nonsense barrel-shaped funny "bird"; Sophie (Ehle) a twitchy, self-loathing well-bred trustafarian; and clothes designer Hannah (McCormack), a girl who shags her fiancZ's best mate days before their wedding. The boys team includes Men Behaving Badly-style chances (Douglas Henshall and Scott) and a dysfunctional nerd called Liam (Hart).

Inevitably, Burke stands out but the entire ensemble is convincing. TEL is a pleasing testimony as to what can be realised from relatively slim pickings - charting the ups and downs of loves lost and found is predictable stuff. Thin though this is (few will buy the unconvincing coincidences that lead the pack of six to shag one another), the plot lines succeed because they are backed up with a gratifyingly gritty script. Comparisons might be made with Four Weddings (although this is smarter) but in the end Four Weddings knew when to end and this film doesn't. Stretched over three one-year segments, the film is unable to sustain the full two hours and ends up indulging itself where brevity would have been prudent. Jennifer Ehle has been successfully cast against type in a romantic comedy set in London's Camden Town.

For some, she will always and for ever be Elizabeth Bennet in TV's Pride & Prejudice. That is all very nice, but typecasting is about ther worst thing that can happen to an actor. In This Year's Love, Ms Ehle is the complete antithesis of her usual elegant screen persona. She sports dreadlocks, has a drink and substance abuse problem, uses foul language and has an eye for the men. Its one of the best examples of a woman who is over the edge but doesn't know it. Ian Hart, Dougray Scott and Douglas Henshall are the men in her life.

Kathy Burke and Catherine McCormack also share them in this funny yet poignant film. I hae seen an early version, which I hope will be trimmed somewhat before it opens on Feb 19th". Tattoo artist Danny Gorman (Douglas Henshall) and his beautiful fianc " ee Hannah Mccafferty (Catherine McCormack) are very much in love. Waking up on the day of their wedding, neither has any inkling that it will all end in heartbreak.

But newly wedded bliss dissolves before they even cut the cake when the groom discovers Hannah's recent indiscretion. Danny and Hannah are thrown back into the 'singles' life, setting in motion the central themes of This Year's Love - eternal romantic optimism, sexual politics, interweaving relationships and unsuitable partnerships. Their emotional "comedy of errors" brings with it some fascinating players. Liam (Ian Hart) is sincere, passionate to the point of obsession and living on a mental knife-edge. Sophie (Jennifer Ehle) is the archetypal rich kid turned rebel.

An attractive, new age single mother living on the dole, she's politically correct, intelligent and challenging company - an alluring but combustible combination. Marey (Kathy Burke), a member of a pub band, is strong, supportive and caring - very attractive qualities to the man in distress, but what does she get in return? And as for Cameron (Dougray Scott), well, he's a good-looking rogue who lives for the moment. He calls himself an artist, but his real talent is meeting women.