Hugh Grant's Best Movies

Music and Lyrics, About a Boy, Four Weddings and a Funeral and a Surprise Choice

Hugh Grant started out as a villain. Way back when, he was a snotty, slightly crazy half-brother to the heroine in a TV mini series. He could have been stuck in villain roles forever (that's what happened to handsome Christopher Walken), but luckily he had a breakout role and became stereotyped as a handsome, tousled-haired, laid-back, woman-chasing commitment-phobic guy. Okay, he's been in a few serious films, but he's best as a latter-day Cary Grant.

In my opinion, his best movies are the following:

Four Weddings and a Funeral: This was the breakout film that got him where he is today. In a way, he's been playing that role ever since—endearing, charming, with a propensity to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, along with a lot of witticisms. Since the story takes place in the U.K. it is perfectly natural that he speaks with a British accent. And the hair-flipping seemed to start with this movie. Or course it was an ensemble movie and other characters move in and out of the story, but the main question is: will Hugh and Andy MacDowell get together at the end? They do, they do.

About a Boy: Grant has said that this is his favorite movie and I can see why. It offers a lot more depth than the usual romantic comedy Grant is associated with. The story, about a lonely 12-year old boy who latches onto a laid-back British type slacker (Grant) until they both grow up emotionally has some serious overtones. The boy's mother (Toni Collete) attempted suicide and the kid befriends the unwilling Grant until they both form an emotional bond that brings him back into the real world. Of course he meets the right woman somewhere along the way.

Maybe the happy ending was just too convenient ,considering all the problems that swirl around the characters in this film, but this is the only Hugh Grant movie where you might be reaching for a handkerchief as well as chuckling at the characters. Rent it today!