DEATH AT A FUNERAL
Reviewed by Sam Hatch
It's interesting that Death at a Funeral is being released on the same weekend as Superbad, for it goes to show just how different two comedy films can be. While I still contend that Superbad is the funniest movie of the year, Death at a Funeral is nonetheless a highly enjoyable film. Director Frank Oz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Bowfinger though best known as a condom dispensing prison guard in The Blues Brothers and as the performing voice of Yoda, Fozzie Bear and Miss Piggy) crafts a deliriously layered farcical comedy of errors.
The film begins with a humorous and old-fashioned animation showing the circuitous route of a hearse bringing an occupied coffin to the titular funeral. The long routine is a set up for the eventual payoff the casket contains the wrong body! So off they go again, back to whence they came to find the correct corpse. This sets up the modus operandi of the entire feature to establish an ever-mounting series of predicaments that build to a crescendo as the spiraling plot crashes in on itself.
It's an older comedic storytelling style, and requires a bit more patience than the rapid-fire belly-laughs induced by that other film from this weekend. Death at a Funeral is a bit of a throwback to the classic Ealing comedies, and Frank Oz has a distinct talent for this type of humour. He's even a Brit by birth, a fact I never knew until now.
Mathew McFadyen (Pride and Prejudice, the awesome BBC spy show Spooks aka MI-5) stars as Daniel, a long suffering man who has been stuck at home in England with his parents (much to the chagrin of his woman Jane, played by fellow MI-5 castmate Keeley Hawes) while his talented brother Robert (Rupert Graves) has bailed to New York in order to bask in the limelight as a famous novelist.
Daniel likewise fancies himself a writer, and has a completed manuscript of his first novel. The problem is that he's so lacking in self-confidence that he refuses to allow anyone to read it apart from his wife. With the passing of his father, he's also found himself in the unfortunate position of having to pay for all of the funereal services himself. Robert the best-selling author claims that he's skint, and can't pitch in despite the fact that he purchased a first class flight back to the Motherland (and had the cheek to complain about the experience). To add insult to injury, everyone publicly proclaims their disappointment in Daniel being the chosen eulogist, since they only want to hear what the famous brother has to say.
Other invited characters include Daniel's cousin Martha (Daisy Donovan) and her fiancé Simon (non-Brit Alan Tudyk of Firefly fame), whom she plans on introducing to her stodgy, doctor father (Peter Egan) before letting him in on the secret of their planned nuptials. Along the way they pick up Troy (Kris Marshall, looking like a strung out, older version of Rupert Grint's Ron Weasley), who takes time out from practicing to be a pharmacist by creating mega-potent hallucinogenic mash-ups.
A stray bottle of wacky pills incorrectly labeled as Valium becomes a key element of the plot, as numerous guests fall victim to the incapacitating drugs. Tudyk gets to have a blast throughout, since his character is essentially tripping balls from start to finish. During an early attempt at holding the funeral service (ministered by The Living Daylights' Thomas Wheatley as the Reverend), Simon disrupts the sorrow after imagining that the coffin is slowly moving. Soon enough, he appears stark naked on the roof of the house and continues going bonkers throughout the drug's eight hour long efficacy period.
Trainspotting's Ewen Bremner also gets some work to do as an old suitor of Martha's, and he routinely and annoyingly attempts to rekindle the magic with a woman who clearly has no romantic interest in him. He leaves his traveling companion Howard (Andy Nyman) to deal with the onus of taking care of the crusty Uncle Alfie (Peter Vaughan Mr. Helpmann from Brazil!), who swears like a sailor and spends most of his time in the loo.
Howard is a nervous fellow who has himself convinced that a blotch on his forearm is somehow a sign of his impending doom. The script by Dean Craig then delights in subjecting him to a nauseating scene in which he encounters plenty of Alfie's fecal matter. Jane Asher plays the stunned widow Sandra, who retains remarkable coping skills throughout all of the madness at hand.
The crux of the story hangs upon an uninvited guest, the mysterious Peter as played by Station Agent actor Peter Dinklage. The enigmatic American man repeatedly requests an audience with Daniel, and one suspects his message is not going to be an entirely pleasant one. His motives are equally unsavory, which is a delightful twist considering how damned charming Dinklage plays the guy as being.
One mishap in the study begets another, until a secret cabal of mourners is forced to band together to deal with mounting circumstances and a grim predicament. Oz knows how to play this material just right, for all of the darkness inherent in the script never dulls the cut of the humor. Nor do any of the parties complicit in the less than honorable deeds that follow lose our sympathies. For all of the black humor inherent in the script, it never ceases to be fun.
It's nice seeing the oft serious McFadyen (who comes across as a British John Cusack) dipping his talents into the world of comedy, for his straightman routine is the perfect anchor for the more over the top madness displayed by Tudyk and company. The entire film is a hoot, and should prove to be a cult item for those who enjoy films of its ilk. And just because of its British pedigree don't expect it to be totally highbrow for while it falls short of the profanity mark left high on the shore by Superbad, it certainly has its fair share of drugs, poop and f-bombs. Stiff Brits can be naughty too, it turns out (in more ways than one).