Death at a Funeral

It's been ages since I had such a good time enjoying a movie. While other movies about dysfunctional families are so dramatic and serious, Death at a Funeral makes things brighter and funnier even at a funeral. The characters are not complex, but various - an accidentally drugged men, a hurting widow, a famous writer and his brother who cannot escape the other one's glorious shade, a hypochondric young men, a sever father, a sour old men, a homosexual blackmailer... and much, much chaos. This antithesis between life, with its different forms of manifestation, and death makes Death at a Funeral a juicy mild-black comedy.

"Death at a Funeral" is a hilarious British black comedy from 2007 starring Matthew MacFadyen, Peter Dinklage, Jane Asher, Alan Tudyk, Kris Marshall, Rupert Graves, and Peter Vaughan.

A family gathers for the patriarch's funeral: his wife (Asher), his son Daniel (MacFadyen) and his wife Jane (Keely Hawes, MacFadyen's real-life wife), and his son Robert (Rupert Graves).

Robert is a well-known author living in a New York City penthouse; Daniel and Jane have been looking after his parents but now are planning to get a flat further away. Daniel and Robert are supposed to split the cost of the funeral, but Robert claims to have no money because it's expensive to keep up his lifestyle. He also won't give the eulogy, though everyone who walks in asks him if he's going to.

Meanwhile, Daniel practices a eulogy but never seems to get past, "My father was an exceptional man." Meanwhile, the funeral home has brought the wrong body and has to return to get the right one.

Daniel and Robert's cousin Martha (Daisy Donovan) is attending the funeral with her boyfriend Simon (Tudyk). When they go to pick up Troy (Marshall), Martha gives the nervous Simon what she thinks is a Valium. It's a hallucinogenic concocted by Troy, who is a pharmacy student.

By the time they get to the wedding, Simon is acting strangely. Not as strangely as he would act later on, but strangely.

Daniel notices a dwarf (Dinklage) at the funeral; the man says he wants to speak with Daniel privately. His name is Peter.

That's all I'll say but the story becomes more and more bizarre and funny, including a hypochondriac with a discoloration on his wrist that he's sure is a dreaded disease, blackmail, nudity, a locked bathroom, and lots of other things.

Very, very entertaining with fine performances, no one going for laughs, just playing the characters. That's really the way to do it.

One of my favorite parts occurs when Robert tries to dismiss the problems brought in by Peter, saying, "Oh, no one even noticed him." "No one noticed him?" Daniel asks. "He's 4'5!" A lovely ending puts the cap on this entertaining film.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect out of this, even though I had enjoyed the trailer in the theater. There had been some comments about cruel humor, which I just didn't see. The story was well structured, with groundwork laid early on for very funny bits much later in the film that got us laughing hard without hitting us over the head with the joke. The moments of comic tension were good, without that excruciating sense that someone was going to be horribly embarrassed, or hurt, or whatever, that American films seem to have. The situation is very well known to everyone who's been to a family funeral, although in America we would have the service in a funeral home or church, and we've all had moments when we want to laugh at the wrong time, or notice something a little out of the ordinary in the service that seems to cry out for comment. My husband, 14 year old daughter and I enjoyed the film immensely, and we all gave it an 8 out of 10, with some good carryover lines to quote amongst ourselves. Go see it, enjoy, and leave the political correctness at home.

This is one of my favorite comedies. It was so funny i was literally on the floor, laughing. Very beginning was a little slow to start, but picked up the pace soon after. I would maybe watch a second time with a friend, but no more than that.

This is the funniest film I've ever seen. Dark comedy and so dry. I've literally watched the film over 50 times.I cry from laughter every time I watch it and i love every single one of the characters. They all bring their own eccentric quirks. I highly reccomend it.