Doug Harris is an average guy. He has a nice apartment and a stable job but describes himself as never being noticed by women. Despite this self-doubt, Harris is getting married to the woman of his dreams. There is only one problem; he doesn’t have any friends to be in his wedding.
“The Wedding Ringer” follows the story of Doug Harris (Josh Gad) and Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart) as they attempt to pull off a wedding hoax of epic proportions. Callahan runs a business that offers best man-for-hire services to men that don’t have many friends. Typically, Callahan would come to the wedding to be the groom’s best man. However, Doug told his fianceé (Kayley Cuoco-Sweeting) that he had seven friends lined up to be groomsmen. Jimmy not only has to be the best man for Doug, he also needs to find him seven groomsmen. For a measly $50,000, Jimmy accepts the job.
At first it seems as if Harris, Callahan and the group of made-up friends will actually pull off the stunt. The gang becomes accustomed to their new identities, take fake pictures for the wedding slide show and come up with very convincing backstories. But as the group of synthesized friends interact during the ceremony, the situation begins to spiral out of control.
“The Wedding Ringer” is very similar to other romantic comedies, while also retaining some level of originality. The idea of creating a best man-for-hire business was creative and funny. The director did a great job of making the viewer empathise with Harris. It’s easy to see how hard it was for him to admit to his fianceé that he didn’t have any friends.
The biggest downfall of the movie was the poor execution of the best man-for-hire service. The whole concept seemed rushed and not fully planned out. It felt as if the director was just looking for a storyline that would allow for zany situations to come about, which was totally unnecessary. If the director had taken a more serious approach to the movie, the plot may have worked better.
“The Wedding Ringer” dishes out a large amount of raunchy jokes and bad language. This unfortunately, along with the poorly thought-out plot, turned what could have been a very touching movie into a mediocre one.
