Wedding Crashers

David Dobkin’s 2005 film follows two divorce mediators who gatecrash weddings under false names. The opening is the film’s most expensive decision: Dobkin gave that montage far more time than the day or two such sequences usually get, and the plot only starts at the Cleary wedding. In the second half the film drops crashing and becomes a weekend comedy in the Cleary house, where the only engine left is the lie. Shooting began in Washington on 22 March 2004 and ran 52 days, the Cleary wedding at the Inn at Perry Cabin in St Michaels, Maryland and the family house at Easton’s Ellenborough estate. New Line wanted a comic name such as Burt Reynolds for Secretary Cleary; Dobkin held out for Christopher Walken because he knew he would not have to lift a finger to make people fear him. Over two hundred actresses were seen for Claire before Rachel McAdams got it. Will Ferrell was confirmed as Chazz at midnight before his scene. Dobkin looked at a version without the R and dropped it: “The two funniest scenes in the movie would have had to go.” A good fit if you will sit through an opening montage that builds a whole season before the plot starts. Not for you if you want the crashing to last.