The Hangover

A key scene in the movie The Hangover (2009) is a scene where Ed Helms sings and plays the piano in the disaster-stricken hotel suite where the main characters find themselves the day of the hangover that gives the movie its name. On the piano there's a chicken, whose purpose is never fully explained. What is the chicken doing in the hotel room? Why is it on the piano? The scene parallels the donkeys on a piano from the surrealist film Un chien andalou. Rather than a run-of-the-mill forgettable piece of easily digestible entertainment for mature audiences, the film is quite refreshing. It challenges the viewer, starting with the non-linear fashion in which the action is revealed. Speaking of which, in reality, the most relevant action is, actually, never revealed. The characters themselves don't know what happened that night, and have to piece the events together from many bits of information. At the end most of the plot is uncovered. But, alas, the mystery remains about the chicken. Where did it come from? Especially in Vegas. We may ultimately never know, and asking that question is maybe as futile as trying to solve a chicken-and-egg paradox. But that clue, that loose end of the chicken in the hotel suite, is in my opinion the starting point where we can begin to read between the lines of the many layers of meaning hidden in this apparently funny and innocuous film, which in the end is charged of significance, drama and ultimately, a very clear political message so obvious that does not merit further clarification.