If you've read my earlier review on Year One, you'll know that the movie I had really wanted to see, was anxiously waiting to see was this one, The Hangover. I went to see this with the Mini-Ster who, by the way, has an excellent little food blog. I only mention this because prior to seeing this movie we met for dinner at this cool little faux deli, Goldberg's Famous Delicatessen. On the surface, this is yet another horrific attempt to create a completely sanitized cultural experience: in short, Goldberg's feels like the suburban mall version of a NY deli. But, the good news is that the food is actually quite good and while it may not be Katz's or some The Stage Deli, it's a pretty darn good substitute.
I originally wanted to see The Hangover simply because it seemed like a fun film and I liked the general narrative structure: bunch of guys trying to retrace their steps. Anything that breaks with standard linear narratives -- even a little bit -- is always welcome. So, while I fully expected to enjoy this film, I never considered just how much I would enjoy it.
On the surface, it would be very easy to confuse this film with all those annoying and increasingly inane Judd Apatow films. Don't get me wrong, I love Apatow's foray into television (via Freaks and Geeks) and both 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up were entertaining enough but the whole genre of the man-child films has been getting very tiresome as of late. Do we really need another movie about men who refuse to grow up, who see adulthood and responsibility as compromises to their slacker lifestyles, who see women as burdensome necessities? While The Hangover started this way, it fortunately veered off in an entirely different and far more interesting direction.
Ed Helms' character, Stu Price, is probably the most stock of the core foursome. He's an ineffectual dentist whose girlfriend has successfully castrated him to the point that he can't even tell her that he's going off to Vegas with his friends but instead must lie that he's attending a wine tasting in Napa Valley. Justin Bartha, as the disappeared groom, plays the role of the film's McGuffin. Zach Galifianakis, playing the dim-witted brother of the bride, provides some of the funniest moments in the film. But the real surprise -- and, again, the thing that elevates this film beyond just entertaining -- is Bradley Cooper's character, Phil Wenneck.
As the ringleader of this motley crew, Phil, a teacher, secretly takes the money that is supposed to go for a class field trip and uses it to help fund the bachelor party for his best friend. He has very little sense of responsibility but, as the film progresses, what you see is a man trying to balance adolescent and adult needs. He's a man who wants to party all night but is beginning to realize that there are consequences (beyond broken teeth, stolen cars, and pissed-off Asian gangsters). I don't want to get too heavy here because, at its core, this is simply a buddy flick -- an exceedingly well-done buddy flick -- and not any great meditation on aging or a deconstruction of Peter Pan. But, just as Christopher Nolan's Batman films elevated the fantastic elements of comic books into the realm of real life, Todd Phillips (the film's director) has also elevated the man/boy flick into something far more interesting, real, and, yes, hilarious.
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