Poor comic team pairing and a way too long running time spoil the party in 'Wedding Crashers'

Friday, July 15, 2005

By WILLIAM ARNOLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MOVIE CRITIC

In a long string of movies since his 1994 debut, Owen Wilson has polished his good-natured but whiney, subtly manipulative and incorrigibly troublemaking comedy character into something like an effective movie-star persona.

MOVIE REVIEW

THE WEDDING CRASHERS

DIRECTOR: David Dobkin

CAST: Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Christopher Walken

RUNNING TIME: 119 minutes

RATING: R for sexual content/nudity and language

GRADE: C+

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But, unlike his brother Luke, his appeal is so specific (and his nose is so crooked) that Hollywood has little confidence in him as a leading man, and only seems to trust him in buddy partnership with the likes of Jackie Chan, Eddie Murphy or Ben Stiller.

In "The Wedding Crashers," he shares the bill with Vince Vaughn, and the problem is that Vaughn is also whiney, manipulative, troublemaking and good-natured. So they don't really complement one other or form anything very inspired in the way of a comedy team.

The movie has a fair share of laughs -- the opening sequence is particularly clever and funny -- but the lengthy competition to see which of these self-centered jerks can be the most obnoxious and shallow soon wears out its welcome.

The plot has the guys as a pair of Washington, D.C., lawyers who take adolescent delight in crashing big weddings, where they pose as distant relatives, make themselves the life of the party and invariably end up bedding single female guests.

But they run into trouble when they invade the wedding of the daughter of the secretary of the treasury (Christopher Walken), get involved with his two other daughters and have to keep up their disguise through a long weekend at the family retreat.

Each star has his moments, and the supporting cast is good, especially Walken, playing one of his less extreme characters; Jane Seymour as his promiscuous wife; and the stunning Rachel McAdams as their daughter and Wilson's love interest.

But director David Dobkin ("Shanghai Knights") does nothing at all unexpected with his high concept; he bounces uneasily between ribald comedy and quasi-serious romance; and he obviously has a hard time saying "Cut!," because at a full two hours, the movie is way too long.

Be warned that "The Wedding Crashers" carries what the industry calls a "hard-R" rating, which in this case means bare breasts, the f-word in every other line of dialogue and one daring, masturbating-at-the-dinner-table scene that pushes the proceedings perilously close to an NC-17.