the blog of nathan loding

The Hang­over (2009)
Star­ring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Gal­i­fi­anakis
Directed by: Todd Phillips
Writ­ten by: Jon Lucas and Scott Moore
Rated: R
Rat­ing: 3 (out of five)

I had lit­tle to no inter­est (closer to no inter­est) in see­ing this movie until I watched the Golden Globes.  Peo­ple had rec­om­mended it, but they also rec­om­mended other come­dies that turned out to be only mildly amus­ing.  Then the Golden Globes played a clip dur­ing their broadcast …

Stu: She’s got my Grandmother’s Holo­caust ring!
Alan: They gave out rings at the Holocaust?

I still can’t really explain why, but that moment is extremely funny to me.  So I rented it.  And very much enjoyed it.

Doug is get­ting mar­ried.  So Stu and Phil throw him a bach­e­lor party in Vegas.  Doug’s fiancée’s brother, Alan, tags along.  When they wake up, severely hung over, Doug is miss­ing and no one can recall what hap­pened dur­ing the night.  The story really is that sim­ple.  There is noth­ing more to it.  The best sit­u­a­tional come­dies are sim­ple.  Look at “Sein­feld,” for instance.

We start with a ter­ri­ble phone call from the best man to the bride – a bloody, dirty, tired, and worn out look­ing best man, call­ing the pam­pered, immac­u­late look­ing bride.  Phil tells her there’s no way the wed­ding is going to hap­pen in five hours.

Flash­back 48 hours ear­lier to begin­ning of the escapade.  We meet Phil (Cooper), a teacher, ready to get out and let loose.  We meet Stu (Helms), a den­tist, tied down by an over-controlling girl­friend who is thor­oughly very pleased that the bach­e­lor party isn’t hap­pen­ing in Vegas (he tells her their going to wine coun­try).  And Alan (Gal­i­fi­anakis), Doug’s soon to be brother-in-law, who is his own kind of loner (“a one-man wolf pack” who def­i­nitely pro­vides the most awk­ward moments of the flick).

They toast on the rooftop of their hotel, then head down to the streets.  When they wake up the next morn­ing, Doug is gone, the hotel room is trashed, chick­ens peck around through the mess, a tiger is trapped in the bath­room, and a baby is found in a closet.  Oh, and Stu is miss­ing a tooth.  That’s only the start.

The trio begins a long hunt for their friend by work­ing back­ward through the night’s events, try­ing to find out where Doug went by dis­cov­er­ing where the tiger came from and why Doug’s tooth is miss­ing and who’s baby that is.

I can’t say that this movie is great char­ac­ter study, or extremely well writ­ten.  But it is hilar­i­ous through­out.  What makes it rise above other generic come­dies of late are the char­ac­ters.  They actu­ally have per­son­al­i­ties and prob­lems, and the night’s events pro­vide a form of ther­a­peu­tic treat­ment for them.  The char­ac­ters feel real, not cre­ated sim­ply because a comedic moment was needed.  The com­edy comes from this sense of sincerity.

You care a bit about each.  Will Phil grow up and quit steal­ing kids money?  Will Stu shed his girl­friend and spread his wings?  Will Alan’s wolf pack ever grow?  You even care a lit­tle bit if they find Doug or not.

From these char­ac­ters comes dia­log that is witty and gen­uine.  It doesn’t feel like it’s pieced together from com­edy cliché’s and pre­dictable reac­tions.  Of course it’s there to get a laugh, but the char­ac­ter isn’t say­ing this line sim­ply for the laugh.  The line comes from the char­ac­ter, from the story, dri­ving the plot for­ward.  It’s a strongly writ­ten film.  Because of this, it eas­ily rises above.

It’s hard to call a movie about a killer hang­over smart, but this one actu­ally is.  It’s get­ting rare to see a main­stream com­edy that is these days.

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Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLo_ik_f2Pk