They will tell you Can’t Hardly Wait is a ’’just another time-pass teen movie’’, and ’’if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all’’.
Don’t believe them.
To speak the truth, the film does not escape its ’’teen’’ environment too convincingly all the time - and is superficial about some stereotypes. It makes a brave and inspired effort to transcend its gamut, but is not always successful, and a good many would find it unexceptional for many reasons. The truth probably is that where it does rise above its origins (such as in its romanticism), it is truly inspired, and where it doesn’t (in its banal teen stereotypes), it is quite mediocre.
Having said that, however, much of the film is of a far higher quality than is usually dished out in so-called ’’teen’’ movies.....in fact, I don’t know whether it can truly be called a teen movie at all, even though almost all its major characters are in fact teenagers. If indeed Can’t Hardly Wait can be called a ’’teen movie’’, then it is an exceptional one, in which the story is told without using the conventions of the so-called ’’teen movie’’ genre and with a perceptiveness that’s refreshing.
Simply told, Can’t Hardly Wait is a tale of teenagers looking for love (some will read that as sex) and some finding it, some losing it, and some just plain still looking for it. To this, add the backdrop of a very important but ordinary high school graduation party....where teenage lives are made or broken, and add a dash of imagination and charm and some dewy-eyed romanticism - and voila - you have Can’t Hardly Wait.
The high school graduation day has arrived and everyone who’s anyone is waiting for the graduation party....simple, romantic-but-otherwise-unremarkable Preston Myers (Ethan Embry) has been dotty about ’hottest-girl-in-school’ Amanda Beckett (Jennifer Love Hewitt) for four years, lacking the guts to tell her, while she’s been playing out the stereotyped life with a macho jock type (but asinine) Mike Dexter (Peter Facinelli). Preston believes it is destiny for him and Amanda to fall in love.......he learns that Mike has dumped Amanda just before graduation day. He puts words to his love in a letter that he intends to give Amanda at the party. Meanwhile, Kenny Fisher (Seth Green) has been waiting for the party just to get laid for the first time....and on the threshold of this, he finds himself locked in a bathroom with Preston’s friend Denise (Lauren Ambrose), whom he knew way back in junior school. William Lichter (Charlie Korsmo) a nerdy, brainy bookworm is suddenly consumed with thoughts of revenge....on Mike Dexter who is always decking him publicly. Lichter puts his plans into action at the party - with some totally unexpected but interesting results.
Well, the party happens.....till it is busted by the cops at some wee hour of night....nothing out of the ordinary there. But before the bust, lives are changed.....and the film observes.....gently and perceptively. A schoolbook of memories is also lovingly compiled (’’Memories are all we have!!’’), without too much help from ANYONE. Along the way, a zillion little vignettes are etched and the film is filled with satisfying little moments and memorable characters.
This is indeed a romantic film in the traditions of romantic cinema (at least, as far as ’’teen’’ movies can go in this direction), and this is where Can’t Hardly Wait makes its strongest and most persuasive point and truly surpasses its ilk by leaps and bounds......love must be strong, bold, must hope against hope and must be imbued with an overwhelming sense of destiny. Preston’s love for Amanda is observed with a refreshing, enterprising dash of romanticism and some really inspired imagination. The scene at the drive-in at 2:00 A.M. where Preston calls Barry Manilow from a phone booth and is interrupted, literally, by a stranded angel (Jenna Elfman in an uncredited but truly inspired cameo) is virtuoso stuff - visually evocative and far above the expected in this kind of film - painting Preston’s love on its last ebb against the vastness of the night at a deserted drive-in.
Contrast Preston at the drive-in scene with others like Kenny back at the party - looking desperately for sex but instead, staring love in the face (literally locked up with it) and unable to cope with it.
The cast is perfectly picked and solid all-round, but Jennifer Love Hewitt is quite miscast, more than a bit actually, as Amanda. She seems oddly uninvolved, and hardly seems the kind of girl that Preston seems to think Amanda is - except in the very end, in the railway station scene. For most of the film, she doesn’t look the part at all. The film also makes memorable use of some pivotal songs - Guns’n’Roses’ ’’Paradise City’’, Barry Manilow’s ’’Mandy’’, and the title track itself.
All in all, a perceptive film about teenagers, but not exploitative....just observant, insightful, romantic and very uplifting. If you watch it, be sure to exclude those who think of it as a stereotyped, ’’time-pass’’ teen movie - such persons can really mindlessly neutralize and take the sting out of a lot of its perceptive, tender moments.