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July 21, 2005
The Wedding Crashers (2005)
by Charlemagne
Another in a long line of movies that portray the Man-Child as protagonists - irresponsible and immature guys but yet, loveable. In general, I have to own up to a personal feeling: I detest these kinds of movies. These movies where mid-30-something year-old men (or older) who act like 19-year-old frat guys are - to my mind - among the most insulting types of films there are. Throw in "the women that love them," and you compound the insult. And yet, these movies always find an audience.
That said, there's something to be acknowledged when particular actors are able to make the material watchable. Vince Vaughn and his crowd can be included in that circle.
Owen Wilson - to my mind - doesn't really add a whole lot other than the requisite basics as the "Straight Man" in this movie. On the male side of the acting equation, Vince Vaughn does alllllllll the heavy lifting. And, in doing so, takes what could easily have been one of the worst movies of the year (to date) and makes it a damn funny comedy for the first 2/3 of the movie. His delivery - in many ways the "Vince Vaughn Delivery" acting style - continously saves this movie in the first two acts in scene after scene. Which brings us to the female side of the acting equation: Rachel McAdams.
Excuse me, ... that should be Rachel 'Hell Yeah' McAdams.
This woman is going to be a star. She will own. She just needs the right vehicle and I can't imagine that one will be long in coming for her. She really radiates off the screen in a nice mixture of that "Old Hollywood" feel and that "New Hollywood" polish. For the first two-thirds of the movie, this actress - with her understated line deliveries and that goddess-like smile - makes you believe that Owen Wilson would go through what he goes through in order to woo her. In one scene that occurs in the wee hours of the night, McAdams gets up to tip-toe down the hallway. She is wearing a simple pair of drawstring sleeping pants and a tank-top type of sleeping shirt. Not lingerie, not an oversized t-shirt that forms a mini-mini-skirt of her pantied loin, not any of the million other cheesecake types of sleepwear that women are put into when they are shown in their sleeping clothes in these types of movies. And, yet,- My God - she radiates all the sexiness that those other women in those other movies only aspire to achieve.
The problem is that the sentiment is not returned by Owen Wilson's character. We cannot see what would draw McAdams' character to him beyond the requisite stuff like "he makes her laugh." The movie tries to tip things in Wilson's favor by making his loser of a character more appealing by ramping up the jackass factor that McAdams' lout of a fiance possesses. But, in the end, I'm simply left bewildered. This is even more prominent when Vaughn and his love interest are - in a bizarre fashion - shown to be so compatible. For the first two-thirds of the movie, The Wedding Crashers is hilarious - hilarious in that way when you see and hear things so outrageous, you have to look away or look down in order to keep up appearances for the folks around you. But, when you do so, you're laughing.
Now, you may have noticed that I keep referring to the first two-thirds of the movie. That, for the first two acts, the movie works. Well, what happens after that? Vince Vaughn and Rachel McAdams essentially disappear for much of the last Act. And, as a result and is no coincidence, the movie nose-dives. It crashes and burns into a fiery inferno. And doesn't even begin to recover until Vaughn and McAdams return late in the Third Act for the resolution. And even the requisite Romantic Comedy resolution can't be saved by them.
For 2/3 of the time, The Wedding Crashers is a much elevated take on this standard material. Fun to watch. But, after Vaughn and Wilson are inevitably found out (I don't think I'm spoiling much given this type of movie - a romantic comedy where people "Meet Cute" under false pretenses) and leave in disgrace, the movie suddenly becomes a train wreck.
But, seriously, if you go only to see McAdams' classic beauty and for Vaughn's tour-de-force performance as the twisted womanizer, you might enjoy yourself. Just resign the movie to oblivion after that 2/3 point, and your fall will be cushioned.
Posted by astor at July 21, 2005 10:32 AM