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Wedding Crashers: (Rolfe Kent) One of the biggest
surprise hits of the 2005 summer season was David Dobkin's pop culture
romantic comedy
Wedding Crashers that strived to bridge the gap
between the juvenile style of Will Ferrell laughs and the deeper,
heartfelt drama that appeals to women in the crowd. The duo of Owen
Wilson and Vince Vaughn returned to the screen again to portray a pair
of Washington D.C.-area womanizers who crash weddings (with a number of
carefully planned explanations for their presence) for the expressed
purpose of enjoying free food and the pleasures of the flesh with
bridesmaids. When they crash the wedding of a daughter of a famous
American politician, they become embroiled in complicated relationships
with the powerful man's other daughters, forcing them to continue their
charade while being pulled deeper into the plot. Raunchy sex and genuine
emotional connections alternate throughout
Wedding Crashers as
the focus of the comedy, with plenty of rough and violent sequences
interspersed, though the feel-good story ends well for the interests of
both genders. Up against tough competition during its theatrical run,
Wedding Crashers managed to use its star power, positive reviews,
and strong word of mouth to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in
grosses for New Line Cinema, and it was no wonder that the studio's
music branch heavily promoted the accompanying song-compilation
soundtrack for the movie. Not figuring on that product was Rolfe Kent's
orchestral score, which was released on its own product early the
following year to coincide with the movie's DVD debut. Kent has made a
career out of scoring some of the industry's most popular mainstream
comedies of dubious intelligence, and he was already experienced to a
degree in this regard by 2005. The composer had recently been nominated
for a Golden Globe for
Sideways, a project that better
illuminated his cross-genre musical capabilities. By comparison,
Wedding Crashers is somewhat mundane in its more generic romantic
comedy sound, though Kent overachieves here as much as would for
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and several other subsequent entries
of similar personality. While it may seem easy to simply disregard these
scores as the fluff that goes largely unnoticed in between song
placements in ridiculous comedies, Kent's approach to such circumstances
is often more intelligent than necessary and recorded with a keen
balance of dynamic enthusiasm and instrumental detail, and these traits
are clearly heard in
Wedding Crashers once again.
The modest, Seattle-recorded orchestral ensemble for
this score is more than sufficient, its lack of overwhelming size more
than compensated for by the pizzazz and heart inherent in Kent's
composition. There are occasional deviations from the airy symphonic
atmosphere, including the slightly retro loops of the primary statement
of the main theme, a faux magical synthetic dreaminess at the end of
"The Cleary's Waltz (Seeing Claire For the First Time)," and what
bizarrely sounds like a bouzouki in "Quail Hunt." Otherwise, the sound
of Kent's work for
Wedding Crashers is dominated by piano and
woodwind solos over pleasing strings and occasional brass for additional
depth. An absence of tingling percussive effects is an interesting
choice. Aside from the consistency of the instrumental balance, one
strength of Kent's score is its collection of easily accessible and
malleable themes. The main identity for the bad behavior of the two
leads is expressed immediately on album in "Wedding Crashing," including
the aforementioned contemporary percussion (the use of cowbell-like
rhythms for this idea seems suited as well). Its swinging demeanor,
deviating in the middle to percussion-only coolness, is carried by
woodwind performances that ensure that the audience recognizes the
silliness of their intentions. This theme is reprised in short snippets
throughout the score, most notably in "Quail Hunt," but it eventually
does sonic battle with the theme for the primary female lead in "Winning
Claire Back," concluding the score with a reminder of mischief at hand.
The melody for Claire is the score's most anonymous, though its
expression at 1:20 into "Claire's Theme" is pure John Barry in its
progressions and flute tone. Introduced prior to that performance is the
theme for the Cleary family (the politician and his estate) at 0:52 into
the cue, and this idea provides the score's few lush moments of
grandeur. Its first full performance of funny stature in "The Cleary's
Waltz (Seeing Claire For the First Time)" yields to more genuine full
ensemble statements in "Boats, Bodily Fluids & a Little Football" and
"Sailing With John and Claire," the latter exposing the idea as perhaps
an offshoot of David Arnold's fleetingly optimistic melodic passages in
Casino Royale. On the periphery is the score's fourth theme,
representing the secondary couple in "Gloria and Jeremy Connect" and
"Gloria, Rope, a Sock and Duct Tape" with almost gleefully creepy
quirkiness, which makes sense given the Gloria character's strangeness.
These themes effectively intermingle throughout the score, retaining
listener interest until Kent smoothens out the ambience for some of
pre-resolution cues of lament, serious conversation, and violence. The
album thus lags in its final third, but there is enough engaging
personality elsewhere, especially with an absolutely outstanding
recording and mix (with perfect reverb levels), to keep you coming
back.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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The insert includes a note from the director about the score and film.
