A hugely uneven comedy composed of the most predictable and misogynistic elements of Hitch, I Love You Man and Wedding Crashers, The Wedding Ringer is a numbingly unoriginal and juvenile offering from The Break-Up screenwriter and debut feature director Jeremy Garelick.
Reducing his affable stars Josh Gad (Thanks For Sharing, Frozen) and Kevin Hart (Ride Along, Think Like A Man) to unabashed stereotypes, the duo nevertheless find a nice rhythm as nerdy, friendless groom Doug and fast-talking Best Man For Hire Jimmy Callahan. Doug is insecure and desperate to please his spoiled fiancée (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting). Jimmy is a smooth professional, throwing elaborate bachelor parties, delivering tear-jerking speeches filled with beautiful, fake memories, and even assembling a posse of groomsmen – all for a fee, of course.
Gad and Hart trade some nice banter, as the former’s stumbling nervousness contrasts with the latter’s mile-a-minute self-aggrandisement. Jimmy’s ability to distract from his words with the sheer speed at which he utters them is a technique Garelick tries to bring to his visuals, which feature gimmicky set-pieces like raging parties, intergenerational football games and canine fellatio.
As women are represented as gold-diggers, sex objects or irascible grandmothers, and the potentially interesting dynamics of a white Jew and black man trying to con their way into a world of privileged WASPs are reduced to utterances of “white people!”, the bite and surprising emotion Garelick brought to The Break Up is absent. And with all the biggest gags lifted from much better films (The Usual Suspects deserves major royalties), it’s a mystery where that writing talent went.