Wedding Crashers

So I finally saw this movie, and the obvious advantage is that now I can write about it without feeling like I'm giving anything away, because so many other people have seen it.

(If you haven't seen it, and don't want to read any spoilers, go work on your script. Or write a haiku).

Wedding Crashers (and The 40 Year-Old Virgin) are both examples of how to do a comedy right. The first, obvious thing is that they are both well-cast, and are carried by their leading men, something that is hard to anticipate at the screenwriting/reading stage; comedies are about the hardest thing to figure out if they are actually funny or not when they are sitting on the page, for both the writer and the reader.

I read a lot of comedies, and most don't work on the page, and likely wouldn't on the screen, either. Here's some of the things that Wedding Crashers (and Virgin) both do well.

YOU CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS. The central plotline of Wedding Crashers actually has its cheesy/predictable side; clearly Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams are going to wind up together, and some of their romantic scenes are run-to-the-bathroom moments, like their going bike riding together. Meanwhile, her fiance is such an obvious jerk that simply coming to her senses plays a bit too much of a part in her story. Still, the story works, because the basic situation makes us root for Owen to win over Rachel and wonder how he is going to get the chance to do it, which helps drive a lot of the last two-thirds of the film; it's formulaic, but they nail it here.

Importantly, the writers mine humor from the main characters while keeping them real and not demeaning them (with the possible exception of the horny mom and the weird gay son, both of whom subsequently feel underused and unsatisfying). Isla Fisher's character has her wacky side that is mined for some good laughs, but her character becomes appealing along the way, and though Vince Vaughn gets abused in the second act, the writers nicely juggle the sense that he is deserving of this and that he's growing from his experiences. Both romances have their good moments, with some of the more pat falling-in-love bits between Owen and Rachel enlivened by some solid details, like their hand-slapping bit or their banter, while the Vince Vaughn/Isla Fisher romance is quirky, original and funny. (Similarly, in The 40 Year-Old Virgin, the characters are kept real and sympathetic throughout, even as the writers are finding a lot of laughs in their experiences).

THE STORY HANGS TOGETHER. The best comedies find a solid storyline, and then hang a lot of funny setpieces on them. Wedding Crashers drags a tad in its third act, but the plot is put together well; throughout the movie, we're engaged with what is happening and wondering what will happen next, while the plotting never gets too silly or cartoonish. It also never feels like a cheat; the tale is true to the characters throughout.

IT'S FUNNY - AND IT'S R-RATED. Thank goodness comedies that aren't afraid to be a little adult and raunchy can make some money, or that the makers of these films didn't have to declaw them to get a PG-13 rating. Thank goodness for the kind of crispy, funny dialogue and comic banter between characters that is often attempted by so rarely works as well as it does in these films. And again, a lot of this has to do with casting -- obviously it is easier to write a funny movie for Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn to bring their strengths to, than it is to write one for Rob Schneider and Pauly Shore to pair up in, much less write a movie in which you really can't picture any specific actors in your head until they are actually cast.

IT'S FUN. This is probably the most important thing to keep in mind if one writes a comedy -- that the audience loves to go on an entertaining ride in which funny stuff happens to interesting characters whose tale spins in solid, humorous ways and all comes out right in the end. Movies like this aren't made to change the world; they are made to entertain people. But too many of the comedies I read just make me wonder who they were written to entertain; even if you don't want to feel you are writing to entertain everyone, entertain someone. At the minimum, entertain yourself; often I feel that people are writing the kind of comedies that they think other people will like -- they are copying something that worked even though they didn't like it, or get it, themselves.

In a certain sense, Wedding Crashers feels like a no-brainer; pairing up Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn is fairly high-concept, and they play off each other so well that one can't wait for the next movie they do together. But Wedding Crashers also works because it does a lot of subtle things well, because it isn't afraid to be funny yet (with the possible exception of some of Will Ferrell's late bits) doesn't strain for it, because the plot allows for some good comic setpieces, and those setpieces deliver, because Rachel McAdams is adorable, and because, by the end, it fulfills all of our expectations about what we want the movie to be, and it even has some heart, which people want more than many will admit.

They even get away without the characters crashing a wedding for about an hour in the middle of the movie.

All I know is that watching it made be want to rewrite one of my old scripts, that tried to be fun like this but never acheived it consistently; juggling story, character and big consistent laughs certainly isn't easy, but when it is done well it makes you want to tackle it.

Now if we could only do something about Owen Wilson's nose...