Chaos reigns supreme in Death at a Funeral
Cut to Martha (Daisy Donovan) and her fiancé Simon (Alan Tudyk). Impending plot twist? Martha's father doesn't know they're engaged. Cut to Martha's brother Troy (Kris Marshall) who is studying to become a pharmacist and manufacturing potent hallucinogens on the side. Impending plot twist? Troy pours a couple dozen pills of his latest concoction into a valium bottle. Martha mistakes the LSD-based derivatives for actual valium and thus presents one of the pills to Simon to ease his anxiety.
We're only ten minutes into the film. Add cantankerous Uncle Alfie (Peter Vaughan), Daniel's schmucky older brother Robert (Rupert Graves), a homosexual dwarf named Peter bent on blackmail (Peter Dinklage) and the severity of Simon's trip, and you have all the prime ingredients for disastrous comedy.
But Death's unending chain of mishaps seems halfhearted and disconnected. The feeble comedic undertones may be consequent of the morbid backdrop, but even as a dark comedy it fails. Its pervasive drug, toilet, hypochondriac, and "crotchety old man" humor is far too conventional to lend Death at a Funeral the uncomfortable irony of a dark comedy, yet its "zaniness" meter barely rises beyond "mildly zany" at any point. Even the more subtle jokes are overly stale: Daniel, his back to the approaching priest, dejectedly mutters "Jesus [expletive] Christ" to Robert in just enough time for the startled-looking pastor to overhear (Get it?).
That said about script and tone, the entire cast of actors is phenomenal. Justin's sleaze is simultaneously sad and sickening while Robert's superiority, contrasted with Daniel's inferiority will make you physically cringe. Dinklage might have played his role as one-dimensionally despicable as his motives, but instead draws on an injured humanity so pitiful that you empathize. Even Sandra breaks iciness of character to mercilessly pummel Peter.
As the tough-yet-caring Martha and her intensely hallucinating fiancé, Donovan and Tudyk give the stand-out performances of the film, balancing drug-induced hilarity with domestically sweet romance. Word of warning: if you don't want to see Alan Tudyk's naked ass - a lot of it - then don't see this movie.
We're only ten minutes into the film. Add cantankerous Uncle Alfie (Peter Vaughan), Daniel's schmucky older brother Robert (Rupert Graves), a homosexual dwarf named Peter bent on blackmail (Peter Dinklage) and the severity of Simon's trip, and you have all the prime ingredients for disastrous comedy.
But Death's unending chain of mishaps seems halfhearted and disconnected. The feeble comedic undertones may be consequent of the morbid backdrop, but even as a dark comedy it fails. Its pervasive drug, toilet, hypochondriac, and "crotchety old man" humor is far too conventional to lend Death at a Funeral the uncomfortable irony of a dark comedy, yet its "zaniness" meter barely rises beyond "mildly zany" at any point. Even the more subtle jokes are overly stale: Daniel, his back to the approaching priest, dejectedly mutters "Jesus [expletive] Christ" to Robert in just enough time for the startled-looking pastor to overhear (Get it?).
That said about script and tone, the entire cast of actors is phenomenal. Justin's sleaze is simultaneously sad and sickening while Robert's superiority, contrasted with Daniel's inferiority will make you physically cringe. Dinklage might have played his role as one-dimensionally despicable as his motives, but instead draws on an injured humanity so pitiful that you empathize. Even Sandra breaks iciness of character to mercilessly pummel Peter.
As the tough-yet-caring Martha and her intensely hallucinating fiancé, Donovan and Tudyk give the stand-out performances of the film, balancing drug-induced hilarity with domestically sweet romance. Word of warning: if you don't want to see Alan Tudyk's naked ass - a lot of it - then don't see this movie.
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