FILM: The Hangover

At the end of every party, the hangover awaits.

Daniel Carey

ONE of the recurring jokes in ‘Father Ted’ concerned money that was ‘only resting’ in the title character’s account. In the episode ‘The Passion of St Tibulus’, Bishop Brennan tells Ted there’s no prospect of a transfer from Craggy Island ‘until all that money is accounted for’. Interrupting a half-hearted non-explanation from Dermot Morgan’s eponymous priest, His Grace elaborates: “You went to Las Vegas, whilst that poor child was supposed to be in Lourdes.” They don’t call it ‘Sin City’ for nothing.

Vegas is also the setting for ‘The Hangover’, in which a gang of lads head to Nevada for a bachelor party. They drink a toast to ‘a night the four of us will never forget’, but wake up the following morning with splitting headaches and no memory of what transpired. There’s a tiger (yes, a tiger) in their hotel bathroom, a baby in the closet, and the groom has gone missing. One of their number has a hospital tag on his arm, while another is missing a tooth. It brings a whole new meaning to the most-commonly asked question raised in movies that focus on the morning after the night before, namely ‘what have I done?’

The actors work well together, and the characters are well-drawn. There’s Phil, the rake who wants an escape from his school-teaching (Bradley Cooper); Stu, the hen-pecked nerdy dentist (Ed Helms); and Alan, the psychopath with a dark past and very few brain cells (Zach Galifianakis). Between them, they must retrace their steps and find Doug (Justin Bartha), the man who’s to be married, and get him back to Los Angeles in time for the wedding.

Heather Graham, who was in Dublin for the Irish premiere, has a small role as Jade, the stripper with a heart of gold who married one of the wedding party during the night of debauchery. She’s the only member of the cast who’s well known, but her colleagues may have just hit the big-time.

Todd Phillips’s film is unapologetically low-brow – it’s coarse, it’s vulgar, it’s raunchy, and there are plenty of gross-out moments. It’s certainly not everybody’s cup of tea, and as one (contented) cinema-goer observed afterwards: “You’d really want to be in the mood for it.”

But ‘The Hangover’ has proved hugely popular, particularly – and unsurprisingly – with guys. It revels in over-the-top set-pieces. A naked man (Ken Jeong from ‘Role Models’) jumps out of a car-boot with a crowbar; local cops use stun guns on the trio to entertain local school-children; Mike Tyson pops up singing ‘In The Air Tonight’. Those expecting realism should look elsewhere, but for those prepared to go with the flow, there are no shortage of strands to the story.

The script is often crass, but it has its share of laugh-out-loud moments. Alan, Doug’s brother-in-law to be, gets the best lines. He notes that their hotel isn’t the real Caesar’s Palace – “Did Caesar live here?” he asks the receptionist – and includes a sinister pre-prepared laugh in his tribute to Doug. A doctor whom the group visit in an effort to discover the events of the night before tells them The Best Little Chapel, where the drunken wedding took place, is located “at the corner of ‘Get a map’ and ‘F*** off’.”

With the dishonourable exception of ‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’, memory loss is rarely played for laughs in movies, although ‘Memento’ and ‘Finding Nemo’ had their comic moments. Given how successful ‘The Hangover’ has been, that may be about to change.