Hugh Grant plays Charles, a "serial monogamist" who meets an American, Carrie (Andie MacDowell), at the wedding of their mutual friends.  The movie follows Charles' and his friends' attempts, at various social gatherings, to find love and settle down.

Matthew, one of Charles' gang of friends

The film was voted #23 in the British Film Institute's Top 100 British Films of the Century.

One of the most memorable parts of the movie was Matthew's reading of "Funeral Blues" by W.H. Auden, which is also included on the movie's soundtrack CD:

Funeral Blues Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead. Put crepe bows round the white necks of public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. He was my North, my South, my East and West. My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good. - W. H. Auden