The Wedding Ringer (2015) Review!!

Synopsis – Two weeks shy of his wedding, a socially awkward guy enters into a charade by hiring the owner of a company that provides best men for grooms in need.

My Take – The most unique part about this wedding based comedy is that most films (at least from what I have seen) are usually centered around a female protagonist like the bride, or a bridesmaid for examples films like My Best Friend’s Wedding, Bride Wars etc. There have been movies about the parents, like Father of the Bride or Mother of the Bride. There have been been movies about the The Wedding Planner or The Wedding Singer or even Wedding Crashers. More recently, there had films about members of the entourage of either gender, The Hangover series and Bridesmaids. But here, this film is from the point of view of the groom & the best man. Doug (Josh Gad) is a nerdy introvert who is about to get married to his beautiful girl friend Gretchen (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting). However, with two weeks to go before their grand wedding, Doug still could not come up with a Best Men and six groomsmen. As he has no friends or family, and in his desperation to give Gretchen her perfect wedding since she is the “perfect girl”, he hires Jimmy (Kevin Hart).

Jimmy is a professional wedding ringer who will pretend to be your best friend, your best man, and will have some of his friends tag along to be your groomsman. A movie like this isn’t some brilliant piece of film making. But it is completely entertaining. Director and co-writer Jeremy Garelick is fairly new to the big screen but I will be the first to say he’s got a great talent for comedy. Just from this alone I’m excited to see his future projects. He had a great cast and that helps but its a big cast and containing everyone and making sure toes are not stepped on and giving the film so much heart takes some real talent. Josh Gad is well-cast as the shy and socially-inept groom-to-be Doug. With his chubby frame, smiling face and polite demeanor, it is not hard to rally behind him and root him on. It is not really hard to conceive how a significant number of men could face the problems as Doug, not having male friends close enough to call a best man or groomsmen. He is easy for the audience to identify with. As the bride Gretchen, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting basically reprises her breakthrough role as a sexy but flaky girl in an unlikely relationship with a nerd on hit TV comedy series “Big Bang Theory”. More positively impressive is Olivia Thirlby as Gretchen’s younger sister Alison. Ms. Thirlby is very pretty and smart, making a mark despite her limited screen time. Kevin Hart has been a roll of late with Ride Along (2014) being a success & his upcoming comedy with Will Ferell ‘Get Hard’ (2015) also looks hilarious, and in here, he’s actually funnier and original! Kevin Hart is a superstar. He lights up every scene with his charm and lightning fast wit, as Jimmy the best man you don’t actually have. He really brings the funny to the film. Not the gross-out boy humor that everyone else is doing, but the smart, witty, and often heartwarming humor that shows why he is one of the most sought after comedic actors of today. Despite his character’s filthy mouth prone to profanity, Hart still manages to be funny and engaging in a potentially annoying role.

The other actors portraying the “groomsmen” were a rowdy random bunch of the strangest types of men. Easily recognizable among them is hefty, long-haired Jorge Garcia. The very final scene is even a well- placed reference to Garcia’s most famous role on the hit TV thriller series “Lost.” Yes! the movie is very predictable. Still the humor is also very well handled throughout the movie when it came to the over the top laugh sequences. But really who cares? You know what you are in for when the opening sequence rolls in. This is one of the most entertaining comedies I have seen in a while, considering some of the other movies that were released few months ago. You can guess from the plot itself, that this is a film which you can’t take seriously, it won’t win any Academy Awards, but if you’re looking for unexpected laugh out loud fun, this is it!! I don’t think I laughed so hard at a movie in a long time and really didn’t expect much from this movie. On the whole ‘ The Wedding Ringer’ works mainly because the chemistry between the lead pair of Josh Gad and Kevin Hart who share a vibrant bromantic comic chemistry together that is a lot of fun to watch. Looking forward to watching more film projects starring these two upcoming comedians. Everyone needs to lighten up when it comes to comedy. This manages to be hilariously funny, dirty without being stupid, and just a whole lot of fun. I can’t wait to watch it again! Go see it!!