British comedies come in two types: the silly Monty Python stuff that Americans get, and the dry, intelligent, stuff that Americans don't. I'm speaking in the broadest of terms, which is why Death at a Funeral is so exceptional. This is great stuff, even though it may seem a bit stiff at first (no pun intended).

Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen) is the responsible son in a staid old British family, not rich by any means but the kind who live in the countryside amid hedges and who have at least one room worth calling a "study." He is in charge of his father's funeral, which he hopes will be a dignified send-off. How little does he know what a day can bring. An early indication of this comes when the funeral home brings in the coffin. One can tell they've done this before, as they make their solemn procession into the family home and present the coffin for his inspection.

"Who's this?" he chokes back, in utter shock and incredulity. "This is not my father."

Yep, they brought the wrong box. And that's just the beginning of Daniel's troubles. His wife, Jane (Keely Hawes), wants desperately to get out of the family home - and away from her prickly mother-in-law. So, while Daniel prepares his father's eulogy, he must deal with Jane who, while attempting to maintain a certain degree of decorum, is also hounding him to put a bid on a certain flat. It's like trying to do some delicate business while trying to win an auction on eBay. In the meantime, the funeral has brought in Daniel's brother, Robert (Rupert Graves), a celebrated writer. The unpublished manuscript in Daniel's study suggests that Daniel lives in Robert's shadow (so much so that everyone expects Robert to deliver the eulogy). Tensions exist between the brothers for while Robert gets the glory, it's Daniel who gets the duty, including the cost of the funeral.

In a lesser film, Daniel's afflictions would just pile up. To this film's credit, screenwriter Daniel Craig (Dirty Little Secrets) smartly spreads the angst over several characters. This is harder to do than it seems. There are films with single protagonists, buddies and a tag team of co-equals. The more diffuse the lead, the more diluted the character identification. In a story involving a huge event impacting broad groups of people - like a disaster flick - it may seem too narrow and narcissistic to focus on just one person, but too many leads can reduce a story to mush. Screenwriter Craig does a nice job of avoiding that by adding in a circle of characters who keep returning the focus to Daniel.

Daniel's cousin, Martha (Daisy Donovan), has brought her finance, Simon (Alan Tudyk). Those who remember Tudyk as "Steve the Pirate" from Dodgeball, may be surprised to hear him speaking in a British accent (Tudyk is from Texas). When I first saw him on screen, I wondered at the casting decision to put this guy into such a serious role. I wasn't wondering for long. Martha and Simon are hoping to make a good impression for her father, a domineering stickler for propriety. Simon is so nervous about the meeting that Martha, while picing up her brother Troy (Kris Marshall), grabs a bottle of valium lying out and makes Simon drink down a pill. But the valium is not valium. It's one of Troy's home-cooked concoctions, the equivalent of LSD.

They wanted to make an impression ...

Part of the fun of what happens next has less to do with Simon, whose reactions we expect, but from Martha's harried attempt to go on, business as usual, in spite of the disaster awaiting her. She may look like a lady but something about her reminded me of a cowgirl. Her toughness adds teeth to the expression "grace under pressure." I thought I was going to choke on my rootbeer when she told one character she was going to take him outside and "kick the sh*t" out of him. As Borat would say, "Niiiiiiiice."

One of the surprisingly funny characters is Howard (Andy Nyman), a George-Castanza-like nebbish who gets stuck with the worst possible luck, including the thankless job of bringing Uncle Alfie (Peter Vaughan), the obnoxious, abusive crank in a wheelchair who never tires of beating Howard with his stick. In an early scene, Howard drives to the top of a one-lane road, only to have his parking space taken and then forced, by a returning utility vehicle, to drive back down in reverse - all the while dodging pokes from Uncle Alfie. A Freudian would note that, as the screenwriter shares the same name as the main character, "any similarities between these characters and real-life persons" is not "merely coincidental." In fact, as Craig broadens the story to include additional characters, it's interesting to note a similarity in pattern: The difference between the quasi-leads and the tags is that the quasi-leads, like Daniel himsef, are individuals who feel put upon. Martha puts up with Simon and her father (along with an old lover who's looking for an opening); Daniel puts up with Jane, who's been putting up with the prickly Sandra (Jane Asher); and Howard is putting up with Uncle Alfie whose burdens include assistance in the bathroom.

All of this supports the theme that funerals, like weddings, are ritualistic lies. If a wedding promises an elusive bliss, funerals suggest a kind of dignity that life continually mocks. Was the man in the box any more dignified than these people, each struggling to maintain composure in the face of circumstantial absurdity? To add spark to the kindling, one of the guests is a mysterious dwarf named Peter (Peter Dinklage). While Daniel rushes to get his eulogy together, Peter just wants to talk. In fact, Peter has some unfinished business just waiting to turn everything on its ear. If much of this film is a study in character, Peter is the plot - and as such, he's a four-foot grim reaper waiting to swing his scythe with a vengeance.

I don't usually have the patience for art-house mush, but director Frank Oz (Little Shop of Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, What About Bob?, Bowfinger, The Stepford Wives) reminds us - again and again - that looks can be deceiving. What, at first glance, looks like a stiff British comedy of manners is, in fact, a riot in slow motion. The man who voiced Yoda is, himself, a master puppeteer, manipulating these meat puppets in grand style.

Jerry Seinfeld has a joke about public speaking. Noting that most people are more afraid of it than death, he observes that, at a funeral, most people would rather be in the box than the delivering the eulogy. This movie proves two things: He's right, and that's funny stuff.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age