Online: “˜American Wedding’ focuses on relationships

A wedding is a joyous occasion ““ the union of two souls,
forever joined in holy matrimony. An “American
Wedding,” as it turns out, is a bit more complicated.

In this third and final installment of the “American
Pie” movies, Jim (Jason Biggs) has proposed to Michelle
(Alyson Hannigan). But before they can get married, they have to
survive a dance-off in a gay bar, dead flowers and Jim’s
shiksa-phobic grandmother, not to mention a bachelor party thrown
by everyone’s favorite horndog, Steve Stifler (Seann William
Scott).

Of course, in the tradition of the franchise, there are enough
sex jokes and bathroom humor to provoke several “Did they
just really DO that?!” moments. But the cast is quick to
point out that the film is really about relationships, not just
scatology.

“It’s potty humor with heart,” says Thomas Ian
Nicholas, who reprises his role as Kevin in the film.

Hannigan agrees. “You have to have the sweet factor so you
believe the gross factor. … It’s the heart that makes it
less gross.”

Adam Herz, who wrote the scripts for all three films, believes
that one of the things that distinguishes the series from the
traditional teen-sex comedies (e.g. “Porky’s”) is
that the women are not seen just as objects, but as developed
characters in charge of their sexuality.

“I always try to keep the women empowered,” Herz
said.

However, many of the female characters from the first two films
are absent in “Wedding,” including Mena Suvari, Tara
Reid and Shannon Elizabeth. Chris Klein is also nowhere to be
found. (Don’t worry Bruin fans: UCLA alum and former Spring
Sing judge John Cho does make an appearance.) The filmmakers stress
that the casting decisions were made for the good of the movie and
that there were no hurt feelings among the actors.

“To tell a clean story you can really only have 2 or 3
main characters. … Including everyone would have just made the
movie bloated,” Herz explained.

“Wedding” concentrates more on Jim and
Alyson’s relationship and on Stifler, who had only a small
role in the first film. We see that Stifler may not be just a horny
jerk, although he does manage to get himself into
less-than-flattering situations. The film continues the tradition
of Stifler eating things that, well, let’s just say he
shouldn’t.

The film also introduces several new characters, including
Alyson’s parents, played by Fred Willard and Deborah Rush,
and her little sister, Cadence (newcomer January Jones.)

The cast says that while they are disappointed that the series
is over, they are all grateful to have taken part in the films.
Over the course of five years, they became like a family.

“I feel like he’s a son,” says Eugene Levy of
on-screen son Biggs.

“I’m sad because I’ve had such a wonderful
experience. … I’ve had a great time playing the
character,” Biggs said.

Well, one can always hope for American Baby.