Death at a Funeral (2007)

Directed by Frank Oz. Starring Matthew Macfadyen, Rupert Graves, Andy Nyman, Daisy Donovan, Alan Tudyk, Kris Marshall, Peter Dinklage, Ewen Bremner, Keeley Hawes, Peter Egan, Jane Asher, Thomas Wheatley, Peter Vaughan. [R]

It’s like Four Weddings and a Funeral, except without four weddings. Ensemble piece assembles a British family for the funeral of its patriarch, each member with their own issues and hangups (self-serving writer Graves, neurotic Nyman, etc.). Combines mannered English snark, black comedy, farce, and slapstick with fairly consistent success, even if some characters get too little to do—Hawes’ character exists solely as an appendage to gently influence husband Macfadyen’s frustrations with his brother, and Bremner does little else besides make repeated unwelcome advances toward Donovan. Tudyk gets most of the biggest laughs by virtue of his character having unknowingly ingested a hallucinogenic that leads to loads of bizarre behavior. Lacks the courage of its ghoulish convictions with a cop-out climax, but it was an enjoyable enough movie before then to forgive the blunder. Remade a mere three years later by Neil LaBute.

71/100