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American Pie: The Wedding

**

Cinema Reviews - August 26, 2003

Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. USA. 102 minutes. Directed by Jesse Dylan. Produced by Chris Bender, Adam Herz, Chris Moore, Craig Perry, Warren Zide. Written by Adam Herz. Starring Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hannigan, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Thomas Ian Nicholas, January Jones, Eugene Levy, Molly Cheek, Deborah Rush, Fred Willard, Angela Paton, Eric Allen Kramer, Amanda Swisten, Nikki Schieler Ziering, Lawrence Pressman.

We've come a long way with the "American Pie" characters, and we deserve a better send-off than this. It's not that the movie is bad, it just feels awkward and not quite right. You should be able to go to one of these films and rely on a certain rhythm, feel, level of craft. The sheen of them should be uniform, and it's the jokes and stories that are supposed to change. But this is the summer of crappy threequels, and after "Terminator 3" and "Spy Kids 3-D", perhaps it is only right to have a third one that doesn't know what it's doing.

Of the "Pie" trilogy, I like the second one best. The first one had some of the biggest laughs, but it was a little strange, getting used to its mixture of gross-out stuff and sentimental lessons, and I thought it was a bit mean-spirited for the movie to get chuckles out of Stifler dissing geeks. The sequel made more sense: Because the series is so much about the bonding of a crew of guys, running jokes had more of an impact; we felt like we were friends with these people. And while the first movie knew nothing about losing your virginity or finishing high school, the second one did know something about what it feels like after the first year of college, and what has changed and what has not.

And now college has finished, and Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) have decided to get married. Seems a bit soon to me, and I expected the movie to deal with that. It doesn't. Hardly any time is spent with issues of the bride and groom; there's an inevitable and short-lived case of jitters for Jim, but mostly their job is to look cute and provide missions for everyone else. What we do get is a lot of Stifler (Seann William Scott), the loud-mouthed jock who only stops saying "fuck" in between high-pitched guffaws. They're trying to make this Stifler's movie, where we realise his essential sweetness and come to terms with the loneliness behind his external self-confidence. This basically involves everyone crudely telling him that they don't like him, and that he can't come to the wedding, before an ending where he saves the day. Wasn't it more effective when the other movies let him hang around the sidelines as everyone sort of rolled their eyes? To see him actively insulted is not just hurtful, it's lazy writing.

Of lazy writing, "American Pie: The Wedding" has plenty. The script brings us up to speed with Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), the smooth intellectual, simply by having someone say, "Hey, Finch, now you're back, what ya gonna do with that fancy NYU diploma?" His sidekick Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) just hangs around in the background, and there's no sign of Kevin's first love Vicky (Tara Reid). Oz (Chris Klein), Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), Heather (Mena Suvari), Jessica (Natasha Lyonne), Sherman (Chris Owen) -- they're all absent too, and not once do we get an explanation.

Obviously there are funny moments. A bachelor party that goes horribly wrong, when the guys hire strippers dressed as a French maid and a leather-clad police officer, and they interrupt a dinner party for Jim's potential in-laws. A moment where Stifler has to eat something rather unfortunate to stop a secret from being revealed. The whole deal with Finch and Stifler putting on different acts to win the heart of a gorgeous blonde.

But the movie should be slicker. It was directed by Jesse Dylan, the son of Bob Dylan, who also made the stoner comedy "How High". I know that movie is, um, something of a cult classic, but I don't think the kid was ready to tackle a project this high profile. He hasn't gotten his shots properly; everything looks a little too dark, and there isn't enough smooth cutting to make us forget about the filmmaking and concentrate on what's going on. Look at the scene where Stifler starts a dance competition in a gay club -- should have been riotous, but it's too rigid, and doesn't seem to work up any sense of momentum. "American Pie: The Wedding" juts and stutters its way to the finish line. It should have soared with poignant comic energy. It should have reminded us why we've kept showing up for four years.

COPYRIGHT© 2003 Ian Waldron-Mantgani

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