“ It is definitely a title that will stand out to audiences…” Extracts from a script report by our trainee Jamie White, based on a reading of the script WEDDING CRASHERS found on The Daily Script website: CLICK HERE
TITLE: WEDDING CRASHERS LOCALE: Boston, Massachusetts. U.S.A.
AUTHOR: Steve Faber, Bob Fisher SETTING: Middle to Upper Class Areas.
GENRE: Primary: Romantic-Comedy
Character Breakdown
John Beckwith: Male attorney (30s). A funny, confident man. A very competent wedding crasher who falls madly in love with a bridesmaid during a crash.
Jeremy Klien: Male Divorce Lawyer (30s). Loves the wedding crashing game but hates the idea of marriage. He is only in it for the women.
Claire Cleary: A very attractive woman (20/30s). The love interest and “want her but can’t have her” girl.
Gloria Cleary: Youngest Cleary daughter (20s). Attractive in a “sweet and wholesome” way but her personality is quite the opposite. The subplot love interest to Jeremy.
Sec. Cleary: Male, Secretary of Treasury (50/60s). Father of Claire and Gloria. Very protective of his daughters. He would do anything for them. He won’t let just any man take them from him.
Kathleen Cleary: Unsatisfied wife of the Secretary and mother to Claire and Gloria. A cougar attracted to John.
Sack: Male (30s). Claire’s boyfriend and much liked by Sec. Cleary. He is the antagonist of the story.
Logline: Two men who crash weddings to pick up chicks find true love when one of their exploits goes a little too far.
Comments
The main plot is an interesting play on the classic rom-com. The whole “boy meets girl, they fall in love, boy loses girl, but they live happily ever after” trope is still adhered to, but Claire is never John’s until the very end. This is a discernable variation that distinguishes the script from other rom-coms.
The characterisation of the two men being almost entirely against the thought of marriage perhaps plays out as too much of an extreme. They don’t necessarily fall slowly in love with their respective love interests but rather it happens all quite suddenly and instantaneous.
Jeremy never shows an interest in Gloria other than at the initial reception (where they have sex) and in the final scene (their wedding). All of Jeremy’s development for falling in love with Gloria comes in an unseen year that is skipped between Sack and Claire’s (failed) wedding and Jeremy’s. The script should show Jeremy beginning to have feelings for Gloria and thinking his whole outlook could be wrong.
Another subplot, one not centered around two characters in love, would have allowed a slight break from the main love story… There’s a chance to show some duality and foreshadowing of the Secretary accepting his son for who he is and then John and Jeremy as future sons in laws.
While minor characters like Kathleen, Todd, Grandma and Randolph are all funny they don’t especially add anything to the plot. Kathleen could have been more of a complication for John and likewise Todd for Jeremy. Although, these are mainly comic characters, expanding their roles should come under consideration.
The title is a nice juxtaposition of words. With “wedding” there is the joining of two people for life, while “crashers” has a destructive connotation. It fits the story very accurately with the “crashers,” John and Jeremy, eventually falling in love and wanting to be with someone for the rest of their lives. It is definitely a title that will stand out to audiences during any potential advertisement…
The tone of this script teeters on the edge of being a “Frat Pack” comedy, but the romantic edge keeps it from being as vulgar as some of those films are. In the past two to three years, rom-coms have declined in numbers and comedies are generally becoming worse critically and commercially. The 2010s have really been inundated with dramas, superhero films and generally darker, more serious films. Even a Rom-com such as SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (2012) had serious subject matter, taking on mental illness.
Then again, lighter comedies such as THE OTHER WOMEN (2014) have been incredibly successful at the box-office.
The main focus for redrafting should be the character development of Jeremy. It should be enhanced to make it more believable earlier that he could fall in love with Gloria.
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