The Chemistry Between Kevin Hart and Josh Gad Barely Keeps ‘The Wedding Ringer’ Afloat

Comedies are supposed to be funny. They can also be insightful or satiric, perhaps offering up a clever commentary on a certain subject or set of circumstances. At the end of the day, however, if you’re not laughing, the genre has failed in its most fundamental purpose. Chuckles equal success — crickets, not so much.

Of course, making something so specific and personal into a universal experience is the difference between a blockbuster and a flop. That’s why Hollywood relies on the comedian of the moment to make its movie fortunes. By the comic’s very popularity, he promises to make at least part of the audience giggle and guffaw.

But like taste in music or cuisine, comedy is also individualized. So if you find Kevin Hart and his diminutive motormouthing annoying, or if you think Josh Gad is just another in a long line of Jack Black/Dan Folger wannabes, then perhaps The Wedding Ringer isn’t for you. Indeed, if your fondest movie memories revolve around nuptials and the various crashers and singers who’ve occupied them, this hit or miss amusement will make you more sad than glad. This is not because of the talent in front of the camera, but definitely because of the people behind it.

The Wedding Ringer is the first feature film for co-writer/director Jeremy Garelick. While he has had previous experience working for Todd Philips (The Break-Up, an uncredited rewrite of The Hangover) this is his first time actually helming a full length movie, and it shows. There’s no real vision here, no desire to turn his heralded screenplay (originally called The Golden Tux) into his one shot at a sustained career. Instead, he feels hemmed in by his leads, as well as the studio’s need to keep them both front and center. Hart and Gad are box office phenoms (the latter was Olaf in the billion dollar baby known as Frozen), but the story they are saddled with is Stale Sitcom Fodder 101. Garelick’s lack of experience doesn’t help any of this.

Everything here reminds one of the old adage spun by the late, great Roger Ebert: “This is the kind of movie that a single, sensible conversation would instantly end.” Indeed, if our poor schmuck of a hero, Doug (Gad) could just tell his WASP princess bride Gretchen (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting) about his issues with friendship and his lack of close male companions, we wouldn’t need all the shrill shenanigans of the storyline. Were such a conversation to happen, the future Mrs. Harris would listen to her man (they are getting married, after all), work with the wedding planner (a borderline hate crime with some subtext played by Ignacio Serricchio), and reconfigure her plans.

Of course, this would make for a five minute movie, and Kevin Hart’s Best Man Inc. CEO Jimmy Callahan would have no role to play. This is one of those characters created completely to service the needs of the narrative. In reality, no business based on providing fake groomsmen would work. But this is the movies, so we have the slick, smooth-talking tycoon and his patented marital moves. Since Doug needs eight in his party, an initially reluctant Jimmy decides to accept the challenge (which he calls “The Golden Tux”), and thus we have the mid-act maneuverings which bring a collection of silly stereotypes in to play Doug’s proposed buds.

Sure, there are moments where the craziness causes an involuntary response, and you cannot deny the chemistry between Gad and Hart, but both deserve better here. Since the vast majority of the plot revolves around Gad convincing everyone of how close he and his fake groomsment are (as well as the fake persona of military minister/best man ‘Bic Mitchum’), there’s a lot of male bonding. Of course, this also then forces The Wedding Ringer into a familiar homophobic mode in order to make sure we don’t get “the wrong impression” about our leads. Indeed, the whole movie is an affront to LGBT issues circa 2014.

Then there are the attempts at surreal scatology, the biggest being a bachelor party sequence where a character gets… well, it involves peanut butter and a dog, so let your sick imagination run wild. This is the kind of cruel craziness the Farrelly Brothers used to bank on. Age and agility are also sources for sick humor. Gad’s girth is constantly mocked, while Gretchen’s grandmother is literally set on fire to keep her in check. If easier targets were all that a comedy required, The Wedding Ringer would be comparable to the work of The Marx Brothers. Instead, it’s an uneven mishmash of missed opportunities and underdeveloped ideas.

Still, if you like Hart and/or Gad, you’ll probably love them together. They have an easy camaraderie that’s infectious. In fact, in their recent PR tours promoting the film, they’ve been far funnier and fresher than what we see up on the screen. Given Garelick’s past, and his preference for the more “shock value” side of humor, it’s easy to see why the studios supported him, but none of their faith translates to the screen.

As said previously, comedy is a matter of personal preference. In the film biz, it’s also strangely cyclical. What works in 2014 wouldn’t make an audience member laugh back in 2004, or 1994, or 1954. For now, Kevin Hart is our funnyman du jour, and he’s brought another solid star in Josh Gad along with him. It’s this duo that makes The Wedding Ringer tolerable. It’s the man behind the camera that undercuts them, and the movie overall.