The Wedding Ringer

Jeremy Garelick’s first film as director grew out of a script he sold to Dimension Films in 2002, The Golden Tux. It sat for over a decade; Screen Gems and Miramax began production in 2013 with Kevin Hart and Josh Gad attached. Hart plays Jimmy Callahan, who rents himself out as a best man; Gad is the groom, tax attorney Doug Harris. The old title survives inside the film as jargon: Doug’s Golden Tux order means 7 groomsmen, and Jimmy charges 50,000 dollars. Set in Chicago at first, it was rewritten for Los Angeles after the producers won a 2.8 million dollar California tax credit, then shot in Santa Monica and Marina del Rey over 38 days in autumn 2013. The opening moved from February to the January Martin Luther King weekend; it took 20.6 million dollars behind American Sniper and 79.8 million worldwide. The press was harsh, yet exit polling gave an A minus CinemaScore. At the 36th Golden Raspberry Awards Kaley Cuoco won worst supporting actress for this film and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip, and Gad was nominated in the male category for it and Pixels. A good fit if you want to see how far the rented friendship premise is pushed. Not for anyone after measured comedy; the register is crude and loud.