The mismatched duo currently mining laughs, box office gold, and some criticism is Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers. The movie’s tag line proclaims invitingly, “Life’s a party. Crash it.” So far, moviegoers have partied to the tune of $144 million in box office receipts in the film's first month. For the most part, reviewers have been kind, too, a few comparing Wedding Crashers favorably to such R-rated film icons as Animal House and There’s Something About Mary. It’s quite possible that the movie may go on to become the top R-rated comedy of all time.

In Wedding Crashers, John (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) are Washington, DC divorce mediators who crash weddings in order to get laid with no strings attached. We meet them as they are embarking upon their twelfth season of crashing weddings for sex.

As the wedding season is ending, the libidinous intruders get their feet caught in love’s trap door when they fall for the daughters of Treasury Secretary William Cleary (Christopher Walken, cast against type as a sympathetic softie). The lightning bolt of love strikes John the instant he sees the face of the older Cleary daughter, Claire, played ingratiatingly by The Notebook’s Rachel McAdams. Jeremy lusts for, then later falls in love with, Claire’s younger sister Gloria (Australia’s Isla Fisher, seen briefly in I Heart Huckabees).

The Cleary sisters also have a freaky gay brother, Todd (Keir O’Donnell of Homeland and Dis-Connected), who acts and looks like Ed Grimley’s dumber twin brother. Claire and Gloria also count a homophobic grandmother among the family: Grandma Mary, played by former high school teacher Ellen Albertini Dow (87-year-old Dow is the same feisty octogenarian who delighted audiences as the Rapping Granny in 1998’s comedy smash The Wedding Singer).

“You’re a Homo!” Grandma Mary screams at Todd, accusingly, repeatedly. But Granny is an equal opportunity homophobe. When FDR is praised, Grandma agrees, “Yes, he was a wonderful man. But that wife of his was a big dyke--a real muncher!” Grandma Mary notwithstanding, being a gay artist is not Todd’s problem--it's being a demented drugged out freak.

At one point, Jeremy awakens to find Todd all over him like fleas on Fido after Gloria ropes Jeremy to the bed. Todd’s attempted rape of Jeremy is a comedic, unwelcome assault. Eventually, Jeremy successfully begs off, assuring Todd that if he leaves now, he can touch him in the morning. However, at dawn’s early light, it’s Granny, not Todd, who’s coming after Jeremy, and this time, she’s armed with a shotgun, as well as homophobic invectives, because Todd has convinced her that it was Jeremy who tried to rape him during the night.

The film's running homophobia has raised the ire of many gay viewers, but they're not the only ones to be ruffled by the raunchy film--veterans’ groups have voiced objections to John and Jeremy’s use of phony purple hearts to pick-up emotionally needy weddings guests.

Mercifully, the Wedding Crashers’ gay/lesbian felonies consume less than ten minutes of the movie’s 113-minute length. The lion’s share of screen time is given to the wedding crashing--and to Vaughn and Wilson’s prickly courtships.

Obstacles to true love’s way abound for John and Jeremy. Claire is engaged to privileged prig Sack Lodge (Bradley Cooper). And, when Jeremy tells Gloria it’s time to take their relationship to the next level, she thinks he wants to watch her have sex with a pair of Brazilian twin sisters. In truth, his heart’s desire is to become engaged. As the sisters’ mother, Jane Seymour has a quirky, tart turn as a 21st Century Mrs. Robinson who tries to seduce John.

AfterElton.com caught up with Wedding Crashers screenwriters Steve Faber and Bob Fisher recently, following a Beverly Hills screening of the film, and asked them about the film's homophobic overtones.

“It was never our intention to be homophobic,” Faber and Fisher replied. “It just sort of developed. The Cleary family is loosely based on the Kennedy Clan. Grandma Mary is somewhat modeled after Kennedy matriarch Rose, who was known to hold certain prejudices and strong opinions. In truth, we thought that we were poking fun at homophobes and the elite. Maybe we didn’t succeed. You’re not the first to view this as homophobic, but Grandma Cleary is a bigot. You’re supposed to laugh at her, not with her."

That distinction seems to have been lost in translation, as theater-goers laugh along with Grandma Clearly. But to what extent that interferes with enjoying an otherwise-entertaining film, well, that depends on the viewer.