CAN'T HARDLY WAIT (Columbia - 1998) Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ethan Embry, Charlie Korsmo, Lauren Ambrose, Peter Facinelli, Seth Green Screenplay by Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont Produced by Jenno Topping, Betty Thomas Directed by Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont Running time: 98 minutes
**1/2 (out of four stars)
Alternate Rating: B-
Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.
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The two niche film genres which roared to success in the 1980s only to be arguably overmined were the slasher flick and the teen comedy. As the genres reached the end of their respective heydays, it became clear that audiences grew tired of watching maniacs in ski masks hacking up young virgins, while the typical formula adhered to by teen comedies eventually devolved to a group of guys in alcohol-induced romps spying on nubile young women in showers. The best films of the teen comedy genre, which CAN'T HARDLY WAIT clearly aspires to emulate, the SAY ANYTHINGs and the FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGHs, exceeded this stupefying formula by being more observant and giving us more -- relevant characters we could care about, and indelible, resonant moments: can anyone soon forget the wonderfully poignant and emotionally powerful scene in SAY ANYTHING with John Cusack standing defiantly with his boombox hoisted overhead?
There aren't any moments like this in CAN'T HARDLY WAIT, and in truth the film doesn't remotely approach the zenith of the genre, but it's a harmless, watchable piece with a few somewhat touching moments and sporadic funny bits amidst the all of the adolescent hijinx which comprise its bulk. Originally titled THE PARTY (and renamed when MGM indicated plans to remake the 1968 Peter Sellers film of the same name), CAN'T HARDLY WAIT appropriately spends almost all of its ninety-eight minute running time at a raucous house party being held to celebrate the senior class graduation of Huntington Hills High School. Here we meet the usual suspects -- the stunning prom queen Amanda Beckett (Jennifer Love Hewitt), the self-absorbed class jock Mike Dexter (Peter Facinelli), the socially-inept class braniac William Lichter (Charlie Korsmo), the self-styled hipster Kenny Fisher (Seth Green), and, in a nod to SAY ANYTHING's John Cusack and Lili Taylor, our lovelorn chief protagonist Preston Meyers (Ethan Embry) and his faithful sardonic friend Denise Fleming (Lauren Ambrose); give her a guitar and him some kickboxing moves, and the homage would be complete. Preston has been mooning over Amanda since he first saw her four years ago, and with she being unceremoniously dropped by her longtime boyfriend Mike and this being his last night in town before heading off to a Boston college, he's convinced that the fates are aligned in his favour (the incongruous broadcast of Barry Manilow's "Mandy" on the radio is a cincher) and heads to the party, Denise in tow, in order to win Amanda's heart.
The motives of the other major characters are decidedly less poignant. Mike, dumping Amanda in his plan to upgrade to college women, is out to convince members of his clique to do likewise to their high school girlfriends. William seeks vengeance on Mike for years of torment and ridicule in school, and, in the film's most misconceived subplot, devises an ridiculous revenge fantasy involving chloroform and Polaroids. And Kenny, who winds up revealing his true colours as a poseur, is simply looking -- desperately so -- for some action. The many other characters which populate the party are cardboard-thin in depth and accordingly sport names such as Girl Whose Party It Is and Exchange Student. (Melissa Joan Hart of SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH makes an impression as the overly zestful Yearbook Girl.)
The cut-loose antics at the crowded, energetic party, in all its picture-defacing, furniture-destroying, beer-swilling glory, is at times amusing to watch and is supported by an entertaining soundtrack, but the film improves when it shifts its focus away from the teeming masses of revellers and towards its detached primary characters. Denise and Kenny are the furthest removed from the festivities, literally isolated in a locked bathroom by an accidental mishap which eventually leads to a extended session of THE BREAKFAST CLUB-styled soul-searching and meditation, but almost all of the other characters are in some form similarly set apart from the party: Amanda mopes through the celebration in the haze of an identity crisis, while Mike stumbles about in confusion as he learns that his influence over his friends isn't strong enough to overcome their hormones. Meanwhile, Preston wanders around on the brink of the ongoing chaos, trying to summon up the courage to present Amanda with his heartfelt love letter.
The screenplay by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, who also shared direction duties, is at times unforgivably lazy -- there are two separate occasions where, having presumably written themselves into a wall, summon up an incidental character (cameoed by recognizable faces such as Jerry O'Connell as a one-time highschool bigshot and Jenna Elfman as an ersatz roadside angel) to essentially tell their characters what to do next -- but there are moments of cleverness in the film, and CAN'T HARDLY WAIT captures the sheer purity of Preston's adolescent longing, when the love for a girl is so overwhelming that it's the only thing that matters in the world.
The film's young cast fares well in the film. Mr. Embry conveys his character's dreamy-eyed nature well, while Ms. Hewitt is attractive and convincing as his dreamgirl. Ms. Ambrose is given the most complex character and the sharpest dialogue, and acquits herself nicely. Mr. Green's character undergoes the biggest character arc in the film, and surprises in his ability to draw audience empathy.
CAN'T HARDLY WAIT concludes in the way that many films of the genre do, with freeze-frame shots of its central characters as superimposed text appears at the bottom of the screen spelling out their respective eventual fates. As the final shots of the film unrolled, I sunk in my seat -- this device usually leads to a series of glib one-liners that typically aren't either clever nor funny. While this rule-of-thumb holds mostly true here, the final three lines, perfect in their simplicity, conclude the film on just the right note.
- Alex Fung
email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
-- Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ "Unlike you, I'm tolerant of weirdness." - Jennifer Jason Leigh, CROOKED HEARTS
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