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If you're on the hunt for the latest raunchy, drunken-humored, wanna-be comedy, if you want to see a bunch of guys at a bar ambling around shamelessly, making speeches and waking up the next morning wondering, "Where do I live?" then "The Hangover" is not the flick for you. This film with the incriminating title is one of the funniest of the year.
"The Hangover" is about nothing more than a hangover, and one endured by four best buds at that. Yet for this film, its success is honestly all in the technique. Even in how this plot is structured — around what Phil, Stu, Alan and Doug do to reassemble their lives instead of how the four guys go about wrecking them — does the screenplay subtlety shift its focus away from that of just another party movie.
But that is not to say the guys don't have the nightmarish adventure of their lives when they wake up from their Vegas bachelor party. There's a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet and a chicken pecking around the living room. And those are only the animate objects; the Jacuzzi is stuffed with inflatables, the floor littered with cans of energy drinks and empty alcohol bottles and the rest of the pricey suite even more trashed than its inhabitants.
So the guys think logically and first ask themselves, "What happened?" They reiterate this question as Phil, Stu and Alan search the strip for their missing friend Doug, all while trying to piece together the hazy clues of a night not remembered.
We learn early on about the guys' individual characters, but during their epic quest, their unique personalities shine through more clearly than ever (except for Doug-The-Lost, who, as the groom-to-be and cause for the Vegas celebration, is honestly just plot fodder).
Phil (Bradley Cooper) is a family man and schoolteacher — with a penchant for rebelliousness. Nothing captures his cool-guy swagger more artfully than when he runs out of the building, avoiding conversation with his students, and jumps into Doug's car, shielding his face and loosening his tie.
Stu's (Ed Helms) wife Melissa (Rachael Harris) obviously walks him on a tight leash, and when his friends tease him for his lack of freedom, Stu hides his tail between his legs and skulks away. He truly is this movie's underdog, and through every deliberately missed call, boldfaced lie and twisted sham he throws at Melissa, we root for him to stand up for his independence.
Alan (Zack Galifianakis) is nothing more or less than an oddball. He's the awkward, socially stumbling soon-to-be brother-in-law of Doug who balances strangeness with sensitivity. His best buds let him hit up the casino in white flare jeans and a messenger bag and make a feeble, handwritten speech before their bachelors' toast perhaps because they just don't have the heart to say no.
And anyone who's actually seen this film, although rated R, will agree it is not your average drinking movie. In fact, none of this film (other than the hand-written toast speech) even centers on drinking.
"The Hangover" follows a group of friends as they work together to make sure what happens in Las Vegas does indeed stay there. It's more than amusing to watch these gentlemen sort out the mess. The audience's discovery parallels that of the guys, and it's pretty entertaining to solve the mystery of the tiger, the baby and the man locked in the trunk. Though we never do figure out where that chicken came from.
"The Hangover" is far from a film about drinking, but it's also a long shot away from a public service announcement. The movie evades cliché twice — by not conforming to the drunk party film stereotype or to the anti-drinking crusade. There seems to be no subliminal message here, but if you feel the urge to laugh out loud, by all means don't fight it.
Just a hint — don't leave the theater when the credits roll, as the hilarity doesn't end when the film does. And one more thing — don't judge a film by its title.
E-mail: freestyle@lnpnews.com
