As defined by the Random House Dictionary, a hangover is "the disagreeable physical aftereffects of drunkenness usually felt several hours after cessation of drinking," or more generically "any aftermath of or lingering effect from a distressing experience." And in the same way, The Hangover is not as much a story of four friends' crazy night in Vegas as it about how they deal with the effects that night leaves behind. While the movie opens before the night has begun, most of the story takes place after the night is over. Since Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifiankis) know no more about what went on the night before or where their soon-to-be wed friend Doug (Justin Bartha) might be than we do, the beauty of The Hangover is that we are able to participate in the ride just as much as they do. And as Phil, Stu, and Alan go around one crazy turn after another in search of Doug, instead of characters you just keep shaking your head at and wondering how they could be so stupid, they become your friends whom you just want to see make it home alive.

As for the pesky details that stand between Phil, Stu, Alan, and their arrival at Doug's wedding with the groom in tow—let's just say they range all the way from a tiger in the bathroom and a baby in the closet to a naked Chinese man with a tire iron, and a hooker with a missing engagement ring. While each revelation regarding the previous night definitely lies in the realm of crazy, each is also something you can see happening. While no event alone is convoluted enough to explain the entire night, together they add up to create a journey that keeps you hooked. And leaving bricks holding open rooftop doors instead of pulling them away, throwing relational conflict not at Doug's impending marriage but rather a relationship that actually needs to end, and solving their puzzle not with a villain or a single magic key but with time and revelation, its story is also one that walks the line between predictability and absurdity with just the right balance to make it feel real.

You could say that The Hangover is a movie about the oft-recited theme that life is less about the destination than it is about the journey. With Las Vegas at it center, it presents itself as yet another reminder that what happens in Vegas never really stays in Vegas. But more than just a generic regurgitation of those two commonly illustrated messages, The Hangover takes them both and gives them meaning in the context of relationship. While the movie is mostly built on one hilarious laugh after another, in between each of its jokes are four men who really do care about each other and their friendship. And as they face the many events that have landed them in the bizarre situations in which they find themselves, they demonstrate that while things could definitely be better, even when they are at their worst, true friends will never leave you hanging.

Beginning with Alan, Doug's soon-to-be brother in law, as the very odd man out, much of The Hangover's story deals with the evolution of the friendship between the four men. While Alan's opening toast about a lone wolf who finally feels like he is part of a pack is awkward and incongruent with the group of men who stand around him, the men end the movie as a team in which each belongs. While Alan is still strange, he becomes just as essential to their story's resolution as anyone else. And with Doug missing almost the whole time and Phil, Stu, and Alan turning Vegas upside-down to find him, the men prove that God is not the only being capable of expressing a love so fierce that it will not stop looking until it has found even one "lost sheep."

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