CAN'T HARDLY WAIT Reviewed by Jamie Peck
Most of the action takes place at a big bash to celebrate Huntington High School's graduation day. Attending the beer- and sex-soaked festivities are our six main teenagers -- requisite nice guy Preston (Ethan Embry), prom queen Amanda (Jennifer Love Hewitt), star jock Mike (Peter Facinelli), acerbic wit Denise (Lauren Ambrose), white "homeboy" Kenny (Seth Green) and unpopular brainiac William (Charlie Korsmo). Kenny, hoping to hook up with a girl and lose his virginity, ends up bonding with Denise, who's present out of emotional support for Preston, who wants tell Amanda of his longtime crush on her. Amanda has just broken up with Mike, who's been tormenting William, who will seek revenge against Mike before the night is over. Did you get all that?
Actually, the gossipy character interaction that composes "Can't Hardly Wait"'s various story threads ring true for the most part. (Gosh, I was there only two years ago!) It's within the characters themselves where the movie begins to falter. That they're walking, talking stereotypes really doesn't matter; this seems like a deliberate effort on the part of co-directors and -writers Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan to emanate such "classics" as "The Breakfast Club." But they fail to make their entire contemporary cross-section of young people completely interesting. Both Michael and William are crudely rendered, and their conflict, particularly how it ends, is pretty revolting. The Preston-Amanda romance (or lack thereof) is supposed to be Wait's main event, but it's hard to care much about either person.
Preston is solely defined by his affection for Amanda, while, in turn, all she does throughout the film is mope and pout. The would-be relationship somehow manages to click despite the strange, hindering oversight that we're never allowed to see why she's so special to him. This is not because we root for Preston, but because we root for Ethan Embry, whose endearing, natural and occasionally goofy charm makes up for his alter-ego's lack of distinction. Embry ("That Thing You Do!") does a fine job of getting the audience to identify with the anxiety, longing, hesitancy and heartbreak of first love; if only his Preston were fully fleshed-out, he'd be worth following into a "Can't Hardly Wait" spin-off feature.
On the other hand, Denise and Kenny already are; when the film eventually breaks up into several superimposing stories, it is only theirs that crackles with the completely realized good-time vibe that Elfont and Kaplan were probably going for -- and that's very likely because Lauren Ambrose and Seth Green have a great deal of fun bringing to life the most comedically vibrant party patrons here. So, while the material is distinctly uneven, these winning performers, their occasionally winning characters and smattering of winning moments make the whole package not much of a chore to endure. "Can't Hardly Wait" is a decent attempt to make a film that definitively encapsulates a decade's worth of teen fads and attitudes. It's just too bad the far more successful "Clueless" beat it to the punch three summers ago.
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