Wedding Crashers

Wedding Crashers is a 2005 American comedy film directed by David Dobkin. It stars Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Christopher Walken. Will Ferrell also has a notable cameo appearance. The film was written by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher and produced through New Line Cinema.

The film opened on July 15, 2005.^[2] The DVD was released on January 3, 2006, including an unrated version, and the Blu-ray version was released on December 30, 2008.^[3] The film features cameo appearances by John McCain and James Carville.

Plot

John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) are divorce mediators in Washington D.C. The two friends frequently "crash" wedding parties to meet and bed women, working from a set of rules taught to them by a retired crasher, Chazz Reinhold.

The duo always has cover stories for inquisitive guests and inevitably become the hit of every reception by using their charm and lies to avoid being caught. Their goals are to enjoy the free food and drinks and ultimately to charm their way into bed with women from the wedding for a one-night stand. After a sequence of successful crashes, Jeremy takes John to a wedding for the daughter of the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, William Cleary (Christopher Walken). Once inside, the pair set their sights on Cleary's other daughters, Gloria (Isla Fisher) and Claire (Rachel McAdams). Jeremy ends up having sex with Gloria on a nearby beach while the reception is taking place. Gloria is possessive and quickly becomes obsessed with Jeremy. She claims to have been a virgin until the encounter, which shocks Jeremy, and he urges John to bail on the reception with him.

Meanwhile, John is attempting to court Claire, the maid of honor, but he is interrupted by her hotheaded boyfriend, Sack Lodge (Bradley Cooper), who later turns out to want to date Claire only because of William's political power and is shown to openly mock and cheat on her behind her back. Later, John convinces Jeremy to accept the family's invitation to an extended weekend party at their family compound. Once there, Jeremy, John, and other members of the family play a game of touch football, which ends with Jeremy being hurt by an over-aggressive Sack. Gloria tends to him, while trying to engage him in sexual intercourse at the same time.

At dinner later that evening, Gloria gives Jeremy a hand job under the dinner table, while John spikes Sack's wine with eye-drops. Sack becomes sick, which lets John further connect with Claire, and they agree to go for a walk following dinner. John goes to his room to change his shoes, but William's wife, Kathleen (Jane Seymour), makes John fondle her surgically enhanced breasts, then rebuffs his actions, much to John's confusion.

Later that night, Gloria ties up Jeremy and proceeds to rape him, saying she is being "adventurous" and is fulfilling fantasies. That same night, Gloria's gay brother, Todd (Keir O'Donnell), paints a provocative portrait of Jeremy and tries to seduce him, but is interrupted by his father. The next morning, Jeremy asks John if they can go home, but John convinces him to stay, which helps Jeremy realize that John is falling for Claire. That afternoon, the family (minus Sack) go sailing, where John and Claire continue to bond. Following the sailing trip, the family (with Sack now joining them) go on a hunting trip, where Sack intentionally shoots in the direction of Jeremy and John which startles them and ends up with Jeremy being shot in the buttocks.

After the hunting trip, John and Claire go on a bike ride through the country, and they end up at a secluded beach. Claire finally admits she isn't sure how she feels about Sack and ends up kissing John passionately. Meanwhile, Gloria is tending to Jeremy's wounds and reveals to Jeremy that she was not a virgin when they met and that she only said that because that's what she thought he would like to hear. Jeremy realizes that he may be in love with Gloria. Later that day while eating lunch, Sack suspects that Claire may be falling in love with John and announces (untruthfully) that he and Claire are engaged. This leaves her at a loss for words and John is convinced that Sack is lying.

Outside, John is about to convince Claire to be with him, when they are interrupted by Jeremy being chased out of the house. Sack emerges and forces John and Jeremy to tell the truth about who they really are, as he had them privately investigated. John reluctantly reveals their true identities, and William kicks them out. While leaving, Todd wants his portrait back, but Jeremy tells him that he's keeping it as a gift; this gives Todd some relief knowing that someone took him seriously as an artist. Jeremy and Gloria briefly confess their love to each other.

John and Jeremy return to their normal lives. During that time, Jeremy is trying to keep his relationship with Gloria a secret when John comes in to talk to him. He has formulated a new way to try and reconcile with Claire by trying to be a waiter at her engagement party. Jeremy tries to convince him that his past attempts to reconcile with her were unsuccessful and John needs to let it go by coming to terms with the fact that Claire doesn't want anything to do with him. He refuses to give up even when Jeremy warns him that the engagement party will be heavily guarded by the Secret Service and their best chances to avoid being spotted is to stay away.

While pretending to be a waiter, John is caught by Sack and taken outside. He brutally beats up John while his friends hold him still and Sack warns him to stay away from Claire or he will kill him. Once he recovers, John goes to search for Jeremy (who was supposed to have helped him), but instead finds him still at his house and having sex with Gloria. When John learns the truth, he's upset by it and it causes a rift between him and Jeremy. John crashes several more weddings alone, but behaves erratically due to his state of depression, and soon becomes nihilistic and suicidal. Meanwhile, Jeremy continues his relationship with Gloria, culminating in an accepted marriage proposal, and Claire begins to doubt her relationship with Sack. Jeremy attempts to reconcile with John, asking him to be his best man, but John refuses.

John then goes to meet their mentor, Chazz Reinhold (an uncredited Will Ferrell), to reaffirm Jeremy's apparent stupidity in getting engaged. During the visit, Chazz talks him into crashing a funeral, as Chazz believes that grief is "nature's most powerful aphrodisiac." While there, John takes notice of a woman who is truly grieving for her husband because she loved him. He reconsiders his stance on love and marriage and rushes to Jeremy's wedding.

John joins the wedding mid-ceremony to Jeremy's delight, but soon disrupts it by attempting to speak to Claire. Claire, in tears, leaves the altar, but John quickly professes his love to her and his feelings of regret of his past behavior toward women. Sack interrupts, asking Claire to return to the altar so the wedding can be finished. Claire finally tells Sack that she can't marry him. He turns to William for help, but instead William states his full support of his daughter's decision to reject Sack, after William admits he put up with Sack because he thought Claire was happy. Sack angrily demands that Claire returns to the altar. When John makes a crack about the anger, Sack loses control of himself and rushes to once again punch John, only for Jeremy intervene and knock him out.

The film ends with Jeremy getting married to Gloria, John uniting with Claire, and the two couples driving away talking about crashing another wedding together.

Cast

• Owen Wilson as John Beckwith, one half of the wedding crasher duo; a bachelor attorney riding high on his success with Jeremy.
• Vince Vaughn as Jeremy Grey, the other half of the wedding crasher duo; an arrogant lothario. He remains a loyal friend to John.
• Christopher Walken as United States Secretary of the Treasury William Cleary, a big sailing fan and oblivious head of the dysfunctional but loving Cleary household; a generally friendly man, but punishes anyone who insults his wife or four children.
• Rachel McAdams as Claire Cleary, middle daughter of William Cleary; sweet girl and full-time environmental activist.
• Isla Fisher as Gloria Cleary, youngest daughter of William Cleary; an emotionally unstable nymphomaniac who is obsessed with Jeremy.
• Jane Seymour as Kathleen "Kitty Kat" Cleary, the "social alcoholic" wife of Secretary Cleary; she appears to try and hit on younger men, including John and an ex-boyfriend of Claire (this last one revealed by Todd).
• Ellen Albertini Dow as "Grandma" Mary Cleary, William's mother, Kathleen's mother-in-law, and the siblings' grandmother who lives in the compound; she is kind but obscene.
• Keir O'Donnell as Todd Cleary, William and Kathleen's reclusive, hyper-sensitive son; a homosexual artist and family black sheep.
• Bradley Cooper as Sack Lodge, Claire's testosterone-fueled, manly, and violent boyfriend who is obsessed with winning at any cost.
• Henry Gibson as Father O'Neil, the priest officiating at several weddings.
• Ron Canada as Randolph, the Clearys' Jamaican butler; he seems completely aware of Gloria's obsessive behaviors.
• Jenny Alden as Christina Cleary, the eldest daughter of William Cleary.
• Will Ferrell (uncredited) as Chazz Reinhold, the sage who passed on the wedding crashing rules to his protege Jeremy in 1993. When John actually meets him, Chazz is revealed to be a lazy man who still lives with his mother.
• Diora Baird as Vivian
• Dwight Yoakam and Rebecca De Mornay in the beginning mediation scene as Mr. and Mrs. Kroger
• Kathryn Joosten as Mrs. Reinhold
• Richard Riehle (uncredited) as Funeral guest

Arizona Senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain had a brief cameo appearance in the film towards the beginning, where he and Democratic strategist and CNN contributor James Carville are seen congratulating the secretary and his wife on their daughter's wedding.

Production

The film was written by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher and produced through New Line Cinema, with shooting taking place on location in Washington, D.C. and Maryland's Eastern Shore.^[4] Principal photography began on March 22, 2004 and the movie had a 52-day shooting schedule. The main Cleary wedding reception scene was filmed at the Inn at Perry Cabin in Saint Michaels, Maryland.^[5]

Reception

Critical response

Wedding Crashers received generally positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 75%, based on 182 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Wedding Crashers is both raunchy and sweet, and features top-notch comic performances from Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson."^[6] On Metacritic the film has a score of 64 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times wrote a favorable review and said "underneath the diarrhea gags, the long lens at close range of Vaughn's pants and the handcuffs, it's really just a love story about a couple of buddies who live happily ever after. And it couldn't have happened to a nicer, more charming couple".^[7] Manohla Dargis of the New York Times said "It's crude, yes, but also funny; too bad these lost boys can't stay lost. Like clockwork, the film soon mutates from a guy-oriented sex comedy into a wish-fulfillment chick flick".^[8]

British Movie magazine Empire awarded it three out of five stars and were complimentary to Vaughn and Wilson, saying "Sharing an easy chemistry and free of the usual joker/straight-guy dynamic, Wilson and Vaughn quip, riff and banter to hilarious effect. And both get their fair share of money moments, the latter’s muggings are particularly hysterical in a raunchy dinner-party sequence, The laidback stars are funny and sweet, but they’re let down by a patchy script which squanders some potentially priceless set-ups."^[9]

Box office

The film was released in North America on July 15, 2005, and became an immediate hit, grossing $33,900,720 in its first weekend,^[10] hitting #2 in the box office, behind Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Fairly well received by critics, the film eventually grossed over $209,255,921 domestically, narrowly outgrossing Charlie. Considering its modest budget ($40 million) and competition with heavily advertised blockbusters during the summer season, the studio did not expect the movie's astounding level of success. It grossed $75,920,820 overseas, totaling $285,176,741 worldwide.^[11]

Accolades

On April 24, 2006, Wedding Crashers topped the nominations for the year's MTV Movie Awards with five including Best Movie. It won Best Movie, On-Screen Team (Vaughn and Wilson), and Breakthrough Performance (Isla Fisher). The financial and award success of the film has been credited along with The 40-Year-Old Virgin for reviving the popularity of adult-aimed R-rated comedies.

Bradley Cooper was mentioned in the August 2006 issue of GQ as one of "The Top Twelve Movie Dicks". His character from Wedding Crashers placed number two behind William Zabka's character from The Karate Kid, whom he would later play in a Saturday Night Live sketch in 2009.^[12]

Home media

The DVD was released in the U.S. on January 3, 2006, and a Blu-ray was released on December 30, 2008. It is available in an unrated version ("Uncorked Edition") and in an R-rated version (the Blu-ray has both versions on one disc). It features 8 new minutes integrated into the film and DVD-ROM bonuses. Also included are two audio commentaries (one by the stars, one by the director), four deleted scenes, two featurettes, a "Rules of Wedding Crashing" text gallery, trailers, Budweiser Wedding Crashers commercials, a track listing for the official soundtrack on 20th Century Fox Records, a music video by The Sights, and a jump-to-a-song sample feature.^[13]

Television version

The creators of the film made a reality TV version, called The Real Wedding Crashers and shown on NBC in April and May 2007. NBC only showed four episodes.^[14]

See also

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Wedding Crashers

• Official website
• Wedding Crashers at the Internet Movie Database
• Wedding Crashers at AllMovie