The Hangover
Yesterday, I went to see the movie The Hangover. Not a movie I would normally see, but the theatre had a half-off deal and the movie had consistently been getting better ratings than just about anything else that was out at the time. There is a character in The Hangover named Allen (Alan?), who is the adult brother of the bride yet who is still treated like a kid by his family. The groom and his two best friends bring Allen along on their ill-fated trip to Las Vegas, but before they leave, the soon-to-be father-in-law warns the groom not to let Allen drink or gamble.
(warning – there may be spoilers ahead!)
Allen stands out from the group of four in the way that he acts. As the movie progresses, the others question whether he is “all there” and remark that he is a child in an adult’s body. He seems to constantly get the group into weird troubles, yet the other guys can’t help liking him anyway. Toward the end of the movie, the group of friends is in a tight spot for money. Allen proposes that they get the money quick by counting cards in blackjack. One of the characters had remarked in the beginning that such a method only worked if you’re “really smart.” With Allen’s help, though, the team won big in Vegas, attracting the attention of the casino guards. It was at this point that my boyfriend and I remarked to each other that Allen couldn’t possibly be just another guy. In Bringing Down the House (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bringing_Down_the_House_(book) ), it took an entire team of card counters to increase winnings by about 2% only. We thought that maybe Allen was autistic. He seemed to have some of the symptoms – social awkwardness and autistic savantism.
If you have seen The Hangover, what do you think of the portrayal of Allen? Do you think the character is meant to be autistic?
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I think it the character was meant to have aspergers. I thought it was fine and quite funny in parts.
As a father who has a son who is on the ‘spectrum’, I quickly recognized that the Alan character is on the ‘spectrum’. The later scene in which Alan says that he three friends really moved me.
Yes, the actor played it as if the character had aspergers. It was a brilliant portrayal – especially the scene where he reads to his friends his speech about being a lone wolf and later when he sings them a song about being best friends. This character made the movie one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time.
@edlives@xanga – Same here.
I haven’t seen it yet, but would like to…now I’m more interested to see what’s up with that movie.
i kept wondering if he had a.d.d. or something or just really random.