Pros: Seymour and some humorous moments. The chemistry between Wilson and Vaughn is there.
Cons: Overlong, excessive, wasted cast and cliched script.
The Bottom Line: The Wedding Crashers is a less than average comedy, which has bizarrely been raised to a higher plateau in a summer as long and uninspired as the film itself.
In a summer choked for revenues and success, it is pathetically ironic that its most inebriated product would become one of its greatest successes. For all the expensive CGI and bombastic budgets for films such as Mr and Mrs Smith, Fantastic Four and The Dukes of Hazzard, it would be one of the year's cheapest and sleaziest pictures that would briefly resuscitate the summer of 2005.
On the surface The Wedding Crashers shimmers and sparkles like a glass of fine champagne: a solid cast and an intriguing premise made this picture one of summer's few talked about comedies. Yet, a single drink reveals this not to be a delight for the senses, but rather a bottle of bland and flat dishwater disguises in a overblown, glossy package. The pieces of the puzzle are here: Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, along with Rachel McAdams and Christopher Walken are all here. Yet, they are forced together in a juvenile manner without any regard for context and positioning.
Plot
In the film Vaughn and Wilson play two divorce mediators named Jeremy Klein and John Beckwith, who spend their free weekends in the summer crashing weddings for unlimited booze, lavish food and a seemingly endless supply of women for whom the wedding has increased their libido. However, John (Wilson) is beginning to realize the emptiness and vapidity of these two men traversing the East Coast wedding circuit. Certainly, John loves the drinks, the food and the women, but he is beginning to realize that he is not getting any younger. He is nearing forty and his Frat-boy ways should be by now old hat.
However, Jeremy instructs John that he has one last wedding in store, which will be the ultimate challenge: crashing the wedding of a prominent US politician, Treasury Secretary Cleary (Christopher Walken). Lust and mayhem ensues as John and Jeremy become drawn to Cleary's two daughters: the bratty Gloria (Isla Fisher) and the sweet Claire (Rachel McAdams). In no time, the two unsuspected crashers are now being invited to the family compound, where Wilson realizes his desire for Claire has its drawbacks in the form of her hyper-aggressive fiance Sack (Bradley Cooper).
"...an indulgent film drunk on its star's past successes"
However, for all its initial promise, The Wedding Crashers quickly becomes an indulgent film that is drunk on its star's past successes. One truly has to wonder how much of this film was actually cut by a producer, an editor or the director, David Dobkin- who previously had worked with Vaughn and Wilson separately- as the film crawls at a snail space to a running time that shockingly slides toward the two hour mark. The reality that the DVD for this film would contain several deleted scenes is laughable.
A comedy of this manner should barely crack the ninety minute mark, yet The Wedding Crashers selfishly inserts superfluous moments that undercut the film's humour and add nothing to the picture other than waste. A perfect example would be the picture's opening sequence, which involves a never-ending montage of clips from the two crashers previous weddings. Pace and efficiency could have trimmed this scene to a mere three minutes or less. Instead it continues without a thought for economy.
Performances
There are good moments in the film, but they are heavily outweighed by the poor quality of the picture's predictable and racy jokes about topics such as homosexuality and nymphomania. Among the wasted ruins of this picture are veterans Walken and Jane Seymour, who is hilarious in an uncharacteristic role as Cleary's wandering wife with eyes for Wilson's John.
After a wonderfully over-the-top scene in which she tries to woo Wilson, she abruptly disappears from the film. While Walken too is plagued by criminal dialogue, which unintentionally brings forth a flat performance. Even McAdams's character suffers as the script has her appearing too sweet and one-dimensional in comparison to her feisty, not so virginal sister Gloria, who is marvelously played by newcomer Isla Fisher.
Other good elements to the picture include Keir O'Donnell is interesting as the Cleary's outcast son Todd and the two Wedding Crashers themselves, Wilson and Vaughn. Together, the pair have a strong chemistry and despite the poor quality of material they often shine when together, but when Dobkin's focus is not on the two central protagonists, but regarding their relationships to others, the film suffers greatly.
Dobkin's unfocused watery romanticism during emotional scenes between the couples (Wilson and McAdams; Vaughn and Fisher) is awkward and inept; leading the film's dreariest moments into even deeper despair. similarly the film's script by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher lacks creativity and decisiveness amidst the crudeness of their material. Rather than using the setting as one to explore ideas of maturing and deception, the script panders to typical targets resulting in that are overused and worn out cardboard stock characters such as the macho jock and the senile grandmother.
Conclusion
Despite its encouraging appearance, this wedding borrows much and adds little new. Rather than being inventive and original with the subject matter, The Wedding Crashers threads elements of The Graduate, Meet the Parents and every other "Frat Pack" picture into an uneven patchwork of ideas, styles and achievements. There are humorous moments, but they are too infrequent and isolated in a sea of excess.
In the end, like Wilson and Vaughn's characters, this film is a wasted, immature, empty and selfish bore: a drunk and overlong story that never gets to the point. The film lacks the necessary agility, precision and inspiration required to take this comedy to the next level. Instead it lays in the gutter, as no-more than a wasted (literally and figuratively) uninvited guest who clings to an expensive champagne bottle, but swigs from it nothing but cheap, flat American beer.
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