Wedding Crashers (2005)
John Beckwith: Owen Wilson
Jeremy Klein: Vince Vaughn
Claire Cleary: Rachel McAdams
Gloria Cleary: Isla Fisher
William Cleary: Christopher Walken
Sack Lodge: Bradley Cooper
Kathleen Cleary: Jane Seymour
Todd Cleary: Keir O'Donnell
Grandma Mary: Ellen Albertini Dow
New Line Cinema presents a film written by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher and directed by David Dobkin.
Running Time: 119 minutes
Rated R for sexual content/nudity and language.
Release Date: July 15, 2005
Review Date: July 16, 2005
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I'm curious as to what kind of demographic the minds behind Wedding Crashers were going for. Going in, I was expecting a ridiculously lude and crude romp, as could be expected with the stars being two of Hollywood's "Frat Pack". Nay, Wedding Crashers comes up with more heart than it sometimes knows what to do with and nearly crosses the line into becoming a chick flick. But don't worry - there are plenty of breasts and dick jokes to keep the tissues away and the laughs a-plenty.
Not going for subtlety in its title, Wedding Crashers is about two divorce attorneys who like to spend their free time crashing weddings. Especially during "wedding season", when they attend seventeen weddings in three weeks, trying to serve up as many "notches on the belt" as possible while becoming the life of the party in a montage of hilarious scenes. After all, after these two have seen so many failed relationships, why not look for anything more than a one night stand?
It's after these opening fifteen minutes or so that this film finds its niche as a romantic comedy, when our main characters (pretending to be brothers from New Hampshire for the sake of getting in) attend the wedding of one of the daughters of possibly the next president of the United States (Christopher Walken - and who wouldn't vote for Christopher Walken?) It's here that birds suddenly appear for Owen Wilson, as he does that love at first sight thing with the Maid of Honor, Claire (Rachel McAdams). I haven't seen The Notebook, but after The Hot Chick and Mean Girls it's so nice to see McAdams shine in a different light than the "teen bitch" one. She commands a presence on screen that is a rare find and - while I will say nothing negative of Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, or the characters they portray - she probably ends up being the most likeable character in the film.
But, of course, she has an unlikeable boyfriend - Sack ... seriously - who comes from another rich family and wants to marry Claire to join the two families as one. I find it weird in a movie like this that our gorgeous heroine begins to take the notion, thanks to another man, that her boyfriend is a douche bag when, after years with him, she never once figured that out on her own. This is the small point in which Wedding Crashers fails. Bradley Cooper is so convincing as the biggest douche in the universe that you want him to be deported and leave our good guys alone. Can a movie really fail, in part, because of performances being too good?
While Wilson's character pursues Claire, we have the Vince Vaughn character to indulge in the vast majority of Wedding Crashers' belly laughs. While John is in heaven, Jeremy is in hell being stuck with Claire's psycho, but beautiful, sister Gloria - a "Stage Five Clinger", to summarize. She allows us to cringe a little in pity for Vaughn's character - but we laugh long and hard along the way.
We're always quite certain of the outcome of a movie like Wedding Crashers, but the brilliance is in the execution. The cast here clicks on every level with an amazing amount of chemistry and lets us not hesitate for a second in taking their side in the battle for whatever the hell it is they're looking for. For a movie that started out at possibly being brainless fun, we get smothered with heartfelt love and comedy. This is the last movie I ever expected to make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Well played, Clerks.
***1/2 (out of ****)