rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States, Germany, United Kingdom, The Netherlands; 2007
Directed by Frank Oz; produced by Sidney Kimmel, Laurence Malkin, Diana Phillips, Share Stallings; written by Dean Craig
Starring Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, Andy Nyman, Ewen Bremner, Daisy Donovan, Alan Tudyk, Peter Vaughan, Peter Dinklage
'Death at a Funeral' does not really tell a story where the laughs come naturally, but no matter how forced some of the jokes are, almost all of them work. Many of them deal with situations you are not supposed to laugh about, but funny instead of tasteless or clichéd, this film pulls them off. It even knows how to make a character under the influence of drugs hilarious. Normally they are written in to have some clichéd embarrassing moments while hoping for a laugh.
At the funeral, after the wrong body has been delivered first, we meet Daniel (Matthew MacFadyen), the son of the dead man. He and his wife are about to move out of his parents, now mothers, house. Also introduced are his writing brother Robert (Rupert Graves), his cousin Martha (Daisy Donovan), her soon to be husband Simon (Alan Tudyk), the character under the influence of drugs, and many others. Martha's father disapproves of Simon, something that will not change further into the film. A mysterious visitor is Peter (Peter Dinklage) who has some revelations that will put another subplot in motion.
The subplots are the funny thing here. Yes, they are forced into the story and most of them are not that realistic, but director Frank Oz uses them to the fullest. We have the Peter-problem, the drugs-problem, the former boyfriend-problem, the grumpy old man-problem, and even some real family issues. We have seen it before, but not like this. There is something about that British humor, even though the director is American (and admittedly, some of the jokes fit the 'American Pie'-genre, only without the sex), where jokes don't need to be subtle. I laughed almost contantly in these 90 minutes and, not counting 'Enchanted', it has been a long time I did that.