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American Wedding

DUDE, WHERE'S MY DIGNITY? A stripper instructs the "Stifmeister" (Seann William Scott) on proper nasal hygiene.

I have to eat my words; I thought American Wedding would be another Hollywood "cha-ching!" disaster. Following the dismal cataclysm that was American Pie 2, how could I not be pessimistic? This sudden finale to the "American Pie Trilogy" (snicker) came out of nowhere and seemed so rushed that the final product had to be filler material for bigger and better things. Alas, I was wrong - American Wedding scores in more ways than one; it's a mature film with just the right mix of ingredients, far surpassing the second and maybe even more fun than the first.

In a typically embarrassing opening, Jim (hopeless yet lovable Jason Biggs) gets up and proposes to longtime girlfriend/nympho Michelle (the cute and delicious Alyson Hannigan), setting the wedding-theme for the film and proving that the characters are still funny. Painfully, the film quickly loses its edge over the following half-hour, reuniting the original dramatis personae (bar a few wisely discarded characters) and introducing new members to the cast-- but failing to keep the pace of the opening. The first act reeks of poor direction and incomplete writing; it tries too hard to prove that it's part of a series and sacrifices the fun of the franchise, saved when the real heart of the story enters.

The entrance of the annoyingly charismatic Stifler (Seann William Scott, now off my kill list) puts the film back on track, re-establishing the characters and setting them about on a series of convoluted and/or clever sequences (getting the perfect wedding dress, making good with the bride's parents, the bachelor party, etc), complete with sexual and/or scatological jokes. The movie's winning point is that all the boners, boning and general immaturity comes second to a feel-good and mature story about a group of unbelievable characters made believable.

The screenplay and actors complement each other to make American Wedding a lot better than it should be. The actors share the same familiarity with their roles as the audience, developing the growth and interest missing from American Pie 2. The lifeless husks from the past Pies have been scrapped (question: Why is Kevin still around?) and replaced by Stifler. This is a surprisingly wise move: as much as I hate to say it, my most hated character of all film, the embarrassment-to-the-human-race Steven Stifler, comes through in Seann William Scott's best performance to date. Stifler's charisma fills the film with energy whenever he's onscreen, and his downright one-dimensional character actually grows over the running time without betraying itself. This maturation parallels the film itself - rather than stereotyping a teenage comedy, a group of mindless stereotypes based on characteristics become actual characters.

American Wedding offers some true laughs, including the hilarious bachelor party and an unexpected gay "dance-off," not to mention a few disgusting gags thrown in for good measure. The scenarios are hilariously convoluted, but who cares? Jim's token humiliation is overshadowed by the loser Stifler, whose constant humiliation becomes overplayed but never stops being funny - mostly because we know everything is going to turn out all right for him and everyone else by the end.
American Wedding is also surprisingly inoffensive in its use of homosexual characters in a non-stereotypical fashion to add to the fun, rather than remove (see: Bad Boys 2), and the film's humor never becomes cruel.

The final product is an enjoyable finale to the American Pie series, a mature sequel that manages to be a lot better than it should be. All bets are off on another sequel, though I think I'd prefer this franchise went out with a bang (snicker) rather than bequeathing us with another American Pie 2.