There is a scene early in "The Hangover Part III" in which Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong), decked out in a cowboy hat and poncho, performs a pretty decent version of Trent Reznor's "Hurt" in a seedy Tijuana karaoke bar while Phil (Bradley Cooper) exclaims incredulously, "What the f**k am I watching?" It's not very often that you see a movie inadvertently become aware of its nature, but this instance perfectly captures the experience of watching "The Hangover Part III," which takes the absurdity of its predecessors to much darker places.
Indeed, this installment begins with a delusional and possibly bipolar Alan (Zach Galifianakis) mourning the death of his beloved father and lashing out at his family and friends. Fearing for his safety, Phil, Stu (Ed Helms) and Doug (Justin Bartha) convince him to get professional help. On the way to the facility, they are attacked by a gangster (John Goodman) who takes Doug hostage in order to force the other three to find Mr. Chow, with whom he has a score to settle.
The original "Hangover" achieved status as a classic almost immediately after it was released. By the end of the summer, everyone and their mother had seen it. Even my normally American pop culture averse mother saw it and loved it. So when the inevitable sequel came, it did something a bit audacious: it essentially remade the first movie, substituting Bangkok for Las Vegas. Audiences flocked to see it, but not many people were laughing this time around. After all, how hard do you laugh after hearing the same joke twice in a row?
It is with that legacy in mind that "The Hangover Part III" radically changes the structure. Gone is the mystery of piecing together the fragments of a missing night, and in its place is a dark comedic thriller with enough slapstick and gravitas to be reminiscent of some of the work by the Coen brothers. For the first time in the series, people die. And these people don't die an ambiguous off-screen death; the film makes sure to hammer in that they're dead.
In that respect, "The Hangover Part III" makes its audience think about what exactly they've been laughing at for the last two movies. Is waking up in the morning with no memory of the previous night really funny? Is being chased by murderous gangsters or having no clue about where your friends are really comedic gold? If that happened in real life to any one of us, there would be much less wacky adventures, and more calling the cops and freaking the hell out.
The film and its predecessors have managed to mask that by basking in the absurd. "The Hangover Part III" opens with Alan buying, and accidentally decapitating, a giraffe. Jeong brings Mr. Chow to new levels of ridiculousness by escaping from a Thai prison Shawshank-style and leading a cockfighting ring with chickens that run on cocaine and the remains of other chickens.
This veil of absurdity is soon cracked by the more serious and somber events that take place. The film stops before it completely shatters the illusion, but it allows us to take a much wider look than we were allowed in "The Hangover Part II."
Helms, Cooper and Galifianakis play their characters as men getting too old for these adventures. It's debatable as to whether that could just be the result of phoned-in performances, but that would seem in bad taste to the franchise that effectively kick-started the careers of all these men. Galifianakis in particular seems fed up with Alan's inane antics, and tries to flesh out a darker, more human portrait of what we have come to see as a walking caricature.
Of course, this could all be for naught. The post-credits scene resets everything to the mood of "The Hangover" and gives us a nice little setup for "Part IV." While it is arguably the funniest part of the film, it doesn't preclude the fact that the franchise might have been about something deeper than a series of one bad nights.
"The Hangover Part III" is currently playing at Entertainment Cinemas in Lebanon.
