To watch The Hangover is to witness the manifestation of a perfectly conceived comedic idea brought to full flower in a perfect comedy and also, perhaps, a couple of breakout performances that may turn some of these dudes, particularly Ed Helms and Zach Gallifinakas, into legitimate stars.
The writers of The Hangover, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, probably uncorked a bottle of champagne and lit up a couple of cigars the moment they thought up just the concept of this movie. The must have known they had just hit the mother lode. Four buddies head to Vegas for a bachelor’s party two days before one of them gets hitched. Fast-forward to the next morning when three of them wake up in their trash-strewn suite and Doug, the one getting married, is nowhere to be found. Not one of them remembers a thing after they took Jaeger shots on the roof of the hotel the night before, although the tall handsome one (Bradley Cooper picking up a hefty load as the straight man) remarks that the place looks like they had a great time. They find clues that include a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, a hospital wristband, and an enraged Japanese gang among several other things that are too funny to give away. As Ed Helms says, “What is Going On!??!?!!” and yes that is correctly punctuated.
The genius of this story is that it provides so much opportunity for jokes. From the beginning, the clever idea that anything can happen when one is wasted gives the writers the ability to insert crazy side characters and incredibly wacky subplots at all points of the story with very little needed context. There’s a buck-naked Japanese gang lord in the trunk of the car and he’s pissed off and wielding a crowbar. Sure I believe that, as Mike Tyson wisely intones, “People do weird shit when they’re fucked up.” On top of all this the characters themselves are well written. Phil, played by Bradley Cooper, is perhaps the leader. He rolls with the punches, doesn’t freak out too much, and keeps their course straight unless he’s personally getting them into more trouble, like say, driving on the sidewalk. Stu, played by Ed Helms, is a neurotic dentist with a girlfriend who’s a bitch (She thinks he’s in Napa, because she wouldn’t allow him to go to Vegas). He is certainly the most articulate about how horrible everything is (He is paying for everything himself). This is Ed Helms first major film role and here he is given free rein to go all out. He spends most of the movie in a state of frenzied delirium. Rounding out the trio of misfits is Alan, played by Zach Gallifinakis aka ‘Fat Jesus,’ the brother of the Doug’s fiance. He’s tagging along because he’s the type of person that “social interaction would be good for.” He doesn’t need booze to say weird shit. As far as I can tell he's some sort of Rain Man Retarded, but in a hilarious way. It’s probably helped the movie a lot that none of these guys are stars, because the level playing field between them gives each the ability to support each other’s shine through moments in the script. And there are a lot of shine through moments.
This idea is so good, the structure is so accommodating, the characters so well-developed, and the actors so perfectly cast that as soon as the story is setup in the 1st fifteen minutes before they take those jaeger shots the rest of the movie is an hour and a half of punch line followed by punch line followed by punch line followed by punch line. Every scene is funny, every joke works, not one scene falls flat. The Hangover is the best film I have seen so far this year.
Comedy isn’t easy. Making people laugh for over two hours is a hard thing to do. A good comedy is hard to come by. A great comedy (and by that I mean a movie that succeeds at making people laugh at least every thirty seconds while providing an original and meaningful storyline) is something special to behold. If Comedy got any respect this movie would be seeing nominations come awards time. I suggest one for Best Original Screenplay and perhaps another for Ed Helms for Best Supporting Actor.
The Director Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip, Starsky and Hutch) isn’t the most technically proficient guy but he does have some of the best cameos. Remember that curly haired guy with the glasses who gets caught giving head in the elevator. Yeah, that’s him.
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