Death at a Funeral is a hilarious British comedy about a funeral. It’s from American director Frank Oz, but with a mostly British cast. Some of the comedy is a bit dark, as you might imagine, but it all plays out very well.

The movie begins at the house where the funeral is to be held, and a car from the funeral home arrives with the casket. Just to make sure, they open it up to look inside and realize they got the wrong guy. The funeral home people rush the casket back outside and peel out of the driveway to quickly replace the body before the guests arrive. With comedies, the first joke usually sets the tone of the movie, and this one did it nicely.

The large cast of characters are introduced one at a time as they arrive for the funeral. There’s one eccentric old uncle with a foul mouth and bowel problems that makes for some great comic relief. There’s one serious son of the deceased and another who is more of a playboy that doesn’t seem to care about what is going on. In addition to the variety of family members and friends, there’s one guy who has a bunch of LSD pills stashed in a Valium bottle, and several people end up taking the acid because they thought it was Valium.

All of the colorful characters mixed with the serious situation make for some comical delight when the story throws you for a loop. A dwarf, played by the always dependable Peter Dinklage, pulls the oldest son aside and makes a confession followed by a demand. As it would turn out, the dwarf was having a gay love affair with the deceased, and he’s a little upset that he was never named in the will. He has a stack of various unflattering pictures to prove the affair, and he threatens to show them to everyone at the funeral unless the son cuts him a check for 15,000 pounds (which is like dollars in case you forgot this is a British movie and are wondering, ‘Pounds of what?’)

Once Dinklage’s character lets the proverbial cat out of the bag, the handful of family members in on this sudden new drama all scramble to keep it under wraps while they figure out what to do. This causes a series of delays in the service, and this delay time lets the other characters mix things up a little too much. This is one of those movies where the story snowballs nice and slow at the beginning, but by the end things are in complete chaos and it keeps getting funnier with each passing scene.

I’ve never been too big on drug humor, but it actually works very well in this movie. The plot device was a bit overused, but it still made for some great laughs, especially toward the end. The acting was great all around, and that’s part of what made this whole situation work so well. Despite being 90 minutes long and featuring a large cast of characters, each of them were given enough time and dialogue to be individualized. I hate it when movies have giant casts of characters for no reason, but each person in this was unique and funny in their own right.

If you want to see an adult comedy with a few nice surprises, check out Death at a Funeral. It’s very well made and sure to get a laugh or two out of you.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age