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“Death at a Funeral”
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4 stars: € € € €
Guffawing into the grave
By Norman Mark
This movie is so funny that, even if you're a corpse, you'll laugh hard
enough to fall right out of your coffin.
“Death at a Funeral” is directed by Frank Oz, who also gave us the
hilarious “Bowfinger” (starring Eddie Murphy in two roles). He knows how
to mix slapstick and farce to maximum effect.
There is a gathering of relatives, friends and lovers for a funeral of
the patriarch of an ipsy-pipsy, upper middle class British family. As
events get more bizarre, keeping that stiff upper lip becomes rather
impossible. The real fun involves watching many characters working very
hard to be totally solemn while nearly every funereal moment is trashed.
The widow (Jane Asher) sets the tone early on when, after one guest
expresses sadness, warns the guest not to touch the coffin because she will
leave smudges.
Another guest has accidentally taken a psychedelic drug and it leads him
to gaze upon the world in wonder, attack the coffin and eventually sit nude
on the roof of the ancestral home. The sad, responsible son (Matthew
Macfadyen of “Pride and Prejudice”), who will deliver the eulogy, becomes
part of a group of guests that hogtie and hide a blackmailing dwarf (Peter
Dinklage). An angry, wheelchair-bound uncle is subjected to various
indignities, as is the corpse.
The proceedings move forward with crazy logic and even crazier energy.
The result is a movie that will be thoroughly enjoyed by anyone attracted to the blackest of humor. If jokes about dead bodies, bathroom functions and evil dwarves seem overly offensive, this may not be the film for you.
As for me, “Death at a Funeral” provided a welcome, hilarious, entertaining
summer respite. It is one funeral I loved attending.
Norman Mark's radio show, On the Mark, is heard at 11 am Saturdays on
KNWZ-AM, 970 & 1140. His hilarious detective spoof, “The Lure of the
Long-Legged Blond,” is available at www.longleggedblond.com
Guffawing into the grave
By Norman Mark
This movie is so funny that, even if you're a corpse, you'll laugh hard
enough to fall right out of your coffin.
“Death at a Funeral” is directed by Frank Oz, who also gave us the
hilarious “Bowfinger” (starring Eddie Murphy in two roles). He knows how
to mix slapstick and farce to maximum effect.
There is a gathering of relatives, friends and lovers for a funeral of
the patriarch of an ipsy-pipsy, upper middle class British family. As
events get more bizarre, keeping that stiff upper lip becomes rather
impossible. The real fun involves watching many characters working very
hard to be totally solemn while nearly every funereal moment is trashed.
The widow (Jane Asher) sets the tone early on when, after one guest
expresses sadness, warns the guest not to touch the coffin because she will
leave smudges.
Another guest has accidentally taken a psychedelic drug and it leads him
to gaze upon the world in wonder, attack the coffin and eventually sit nude
on the roof of the ancestral home. The sad, responsible son (Matthew
Macfadyen of “Pride and Prejudice”), who will deliver the eulogy, becomes
part of a group of guests that hogtie and hide a blackmailing dwarf (Peter
Dinklage). An angry, wheelchair-bound uncle is subjected to various
indignities, as is the corpse.
The proceedings move forward with crazy logic and even crazier energy.
The result is a movie that will be thoroughly enjoyed by anyone attracted to the blackest of humor. If jokes about dead bodies, bathroom functions and evil dwarves seem overly offensive, this may not be the film for you.
As for me, “Death at a Funeral” provided a welcome, hilarious, entertaining
summer respite. It is one funeral I loved attending.
Norman Mark's radio show, On the Mark, is heard at 11 am Saturdays on
KNWZ-AM, 970 & 1140. His hilarious detective spoof, “The Lure of the
Long-Legged Blond,” is available at www.longleggedblond.com
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