There’s a lot of hullabaloo surrounding New Line Cinema’s “Wedding
Crashers.” Stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson graced the cover of a
recent Rolling Stone and other magazines. Senator John McCain is
catching flak for his brief cameo in the raunchy R-rated flick. And the
film was tops at the box office in its first month alongside the
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” remake. Yet, I’m just not so sure
the film lives up to all the hoopla.
Vaughn and Wilson star as divorce mediators and lifelong buddies who
live for “wedding season,” when they research and crash a dozen or more
weddings to enjoy the food, the music and, of course, the women.
Manipulating the hypothetical aphrodisiac effect that weddings have on
bridesmaids and other guests of the female persuasion, the two
characters each pick a feminine target and use carefully invented “back
stories” (what most honest people would call lies) to win the
woman’s…um…affections. By all accounts, they’re enormously successful,
until one wedding and one particular woman.
“Wedding Crashers” is funny, but it just misses being hilarious. At
first, you see glimmers of originality in this appealingly masculine
film, but then it falls back into safe cinema land, afraid to step out
of the formulaic comedy writing that has succeeded for Hollywood in the
past. Have you seen “Old School?” Well, you’ll feel a bit of déja vu
watching “Wedding Crashers” if you have.
And Vaughn seems to be able to play only one type of character –
fast-talking, and fast to annoy, although many people seem to really
like him. Wilson has an easygoing talent and is an unlikely and unusual
heartthrob, and he performs well in this film. Christopher Walken plays
a VIP and father of the one particular woman who catches Wilson’s eye.
As usual, Walken is both original and comfortably quirky in his
paternal portrayal.
There was one thing I really liked about “Wedding Crashers” and that
was the scripted relationship between Wilson and Vaughn. The actors
obviously have an easy chemistry, making them work well together on
screen. But even more refreshing was the buddy story between them.
“Wedding Crashers” didn’t rely on the stereotypes major films normally
use to show boy best friends, and instead included some brotherly
affection between the two men that was at once both funny and real.
The almost two-hours-long “Wedding Crashers” has some bawdy parts,
and it earns its R rating, so this is definitely a film for the
grown-ups (although a few underage folks have been trying to get in; a
local movie theater posted ushers at the theater entrance at the
showing I attended to make sure no one was sneaking in). I’d probably
advise you to save this movie for the rental list, but I bet you won’t
listen to me – Hollywood’s done a terrific job at making “Wedding
Crashers” sound irresistible. So just go see it without putting too
much faith in all the hype. Then, you won’t have to worry about it
living up to the laughs they promised.
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