Film-Like Substance Review: The Wedding Crashers (dir. Who Cares? 2005)
OK, so this is not a serious film. It doesn't even take itself seriously. But it is funny, at least in parts. The storyline: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are two D.C.-area divorce lawyers who crash weddings to meet temporarily libidinous females and bed them, under false pretenses . . . which is as sad and pathetic as it sounds, and the upside of the storyline is that even these guys realize how pathetic this is at the end. Well, it takes quite a bit for Owen Wilson to realize this--the intervention of the Will Ferrell character, who has stooped to crashing funerals, thus proving that no matter how pathetic you are, there's always that other guy.
Both characters fall in love, they fall out with each other, and then they reconcile with each other and find true love. All that happens in the second half of the movie, which is by far the less funny part. In a very real sense, this movie violates the Seinfeld rule: "No growth, no hugs." These characters grow, and they hug.
Vince Vaughn is the star here. His "performance" is very funny. Ferrell is Ferrell, in the ten minutes of film he's in, playing that insane guy who seems sane, 80% of the time, but then there's that other 20%. Owen Wilson is the problem. Vaughn swamps him in every way, including physically (Vaughn is like 50% bigger). I've seen Wilson in things I liked him in (Zoolander), but this is not his movie. And Christopher Walken is wasted in this movie.
Not bad, but not great. If you like this kind of movie, you've already seen it, I'm sure. Any thoughts?
posted by Number Three @ 8:07 PM
1 Comments:
Since you complained about no movie review comments, I thought I'd go back and comment on this one, which I have actually seen.
First, I think I liked this movie better than you did, although I don't have strong reasons; maybe I'd add in the woman playing Vince Vaughn's psycho girlfriend as a brilliant supporting role. But otherwise, I agree with pretty much everything you say. VV rocks and OW is outclassed; the first half is far funnier than the second half; and the mistake of violating the Seinfeld rule is the key weakness (also a reason why Friends was never nearly as funny a show as Sein).
One quibble: Zoolander was NOT funny; it was both OW's and Ben Stiller's least funny movie. Now, Meet the Parents--that was funny.
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