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Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 05 June 2009 05:48

There is a lot to admire in The Hangover; aside from having a lot of good laughs, its structure is novel and lends itself to surprises.

In a recent (excellent) article for The New York Times, journalist John Wray described comedian Zach Galifianakis, one of the stars of the new Todd Phillips comedy The Hangover, as "his generation's great white comedic hope," and says that Galifianakis' breakout was his appearance in the 2005 Michael Blieden documentary The Comedians of Comedy, which documented Galifianakis touring with other luminaries of stand-up, including Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn and Maria Bamford. I agree with both of Wray's assertions regarding Galifianakis' stature and how he came to be recognized.

One link that Wray does not make is that in The Comedians of Comedy, there is a scene where Posehn and Galifianakis lament their abortive film careers: Both say that they have never done a film role that they have been proud of. (Elsewhere in Comedians, Galifianakis is introduced with "You know him from Bubble Boy and Tru Calling...") This point is where everyone seems to be getting confused; The Hangover has been touted as being one of the surefire sleeper hits of the summer, if there is such a thing, and also one that will make Galifianakis into a big star. Again, I can't exactly disagree with either of these statements. But what I'm concerned about is that Galifianakis still hasn't done any film work that he's proud of, including The Hangover.

The Hangover is a comedy that plays more like a murder mystery than the bachelor party that it promises. The premise is that, after a wild night of bachelor partying, the three groomsmen, alpha male dickhead Phil (Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams' similarly alpha male dickheaded boyfriend from Wedding Crashers), timid dentist Stu (the underrated Ed Helms, The Office's Andy) and the maybe mildly retarded and socially unacceptable brother of the bride Alan (Galifianakis), lose the groom, Doug (Justin Bartha). As an audience, we never see the bachelor party in question; all we see is its aftermath. Phil, Stu and Alan wake with major hangovers and some odd clues regarding Doug's possible location (said clues include a chicken, a tiger, a baby and a police car), and the vast majority of the film shows them following these leads to ascertain Doug's location in time to get him back for the wedding.

There is a lot to admire in The Hangover; aside from having a lot of good laughs, its structure is novel and lends itself to surprises. Also, the movie has one hell of a cast (excepting Cooper, who is extremely unlikeable, though that might have been intentional on his/the filmmakers' part). The audience at the press screening I attended went nuts for it, too; when, at the end of the screening, I revealed I wasn't too crazy about the film, I thought I was going to get lynched. To be honest, when it comes out on DVD, I'll probably buy it and watch it occasionally in the middle of the night, as I do with Phillips' Old School and Road Trip. Is The Hangover a good movie? Maybe. Does it live up to its potential? Certainly not.

I've been a fan of Phillips for a while now, as can be at least kind of ascertained from the preceding paragraph, but what most fans of his mainstream comedies don't know is that, prior to his break in Hollywood, he made a string of very good and—I hate to say it—edgy documentaries: 1994's Hated: G.G. Allin & the Murder Junkies and 1998's banned HBO production Frat House (which is available online, despite having been quashed by the fraternity it documents). While I like almost all of his Hollywood comedies, he has not yet lived up to his promise with the release of these '90s documentaries.

And with Phillips out of the way, that brings us to Galifianakis. I'm glad to see that, not only does he have a role not of a homeless person, but it is actually one of the starring roles. He deserves it. And he deserves all of the attention that this role has brought him and will bring him. But he really deserves a lot more than that. A role as the broadly dumb guy played for laughs at his expense in a slightly-above-average Hollywood comedy? Is this really the best we can do for our "great white comedic hope"? The only thing that I feel good about regarding this whole thing is that hopefully people will see him and love him in The Hangover, then go back into his past and see the work that he's done as a stand-up comedian. With any luck, down the line, he'll get the kind of roles that he truly deserves. | Pete Timmermann