'Wedding Ringer’ review: A bromantic comedy that goes there

“The Wedding Ringer” is a raunchy, rude bromance in which pretty much every character is putting up a front. The film is so wildly un-PC, it’s sure to annoy many, some with reasonable arguments. But whether gleefully treading where fools rush in or subjecting characters to surprising harm for laughs,
the thing is funny, at times very funny.
Josh Gad’s Doug is an everyman with no friends who hires Kevin Hart’s professional best man, Jimmy, to make him look good at his wedding, unbeknownst to his ultra-high-maintenance bride-to-be. The usual farcical complications follow, but the movie has fun with those conventions rather than getting trapped by them. The film’s delight in playing with stereotypes and calling out genre tropes is downright refreshing.
That’s not to make “Ringer” out to be revolutionary (although director and co-writer Jeremy Garelick did do an uncredited rewrite on the breath-of-fresh-air first “Hangover”). The major plot movements are clearly telegraphed, and the whole wedding con-job thing has been touched on in such films as “Wedding Crashers” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding.”
In “Ringer,” the absurd behavior, unexpectedly savage stunts and one of the better bonding dance sequences you’ll see elevate the film.
The hot name is Hart, and the rising star delivers, slickly fabricating on a dime. Gad is more than a straight man, fearlessly throwing his body around and fretting his way to an awakening. The film is unabashedly guy-centric, so Doug’s fiancee, played by Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting, is written into a corner with a one-dimensional part. The great Cloris Leachman may seem wasted in a tiny role, but as one would expect, she gets the most out of every take.
“Ringer’s” secret weapon is the Screw-Up Squad that makes up the groomsmen hired for the hoity-toity nuptials. The scenes of recruiting the motley bag of weirdos call to mind a dirtbag “Ocean’s 11.” “It looks like the entire cast of 'Goonies’ grew up and became” criminals, says a mortified Doug.
That bunch of bananas includes one who looks like Peter Sarsgaard’s even sketchier brother (Dan Gill) and a handsome, dim, explosive stutterer (Alan Ritchson). Aaron Takahashi and Jorge Garcia of “Lost” even re-enact a sliver of a scene from “Titanic.”
Respect is not something viewers will find much of in “The Wedding Ringer,” nor propriety, nor any of those things that make for respectable family viewing. It’s just a funny, impolite, very not-for-kids romp that goes there.
Michael Ordoña is a Los Angeles freelance writer. Twitter: @michaelordona