Death at a Funeral

I am a film enthisiast,not a film expert. My reviews are generally based on the persoal delight or dismay that I experience watching a movie. It was a pensive rainy afternoon. I was stuck in a mall with a close friend, watching people dig themselves into the tempting  oblations of consumerism. Just to get over the depressive mood we decided to watch a movie and tickets were available for only the one that I had just mentioned. 

The curtain raises with a truck carrying a coffin trying to find its way to the mourning. It reaches its destination only to realise that the wrong body was delivered!! Weird begining yet stunningly funny. It just sets the mood for what follows. The plot goes like this - Daniel is an average English guy, happily  married to Jane and still lives at his father's home. When his father dies, its his responsibility to carry out an impressive his funeral. On this painful morning, with a  suitable grave expression on his face, Daniel is ready to welcome his father's friends and relatives. But preserving the dignity inherent in such circumstances turns out to be a hard task. Particularly with an undertaker who botches his work, the return from the USA of his famous but selfish brother, his cousin's fiancé who has accidentally ingested drugs, the presence a moron who takes advantage of the sad event to win back the heart (or rather the body) of a woman who is about to marry another, of a handicapped old uncle who is also the most unbearable pain in the neck. To cap it all, Daniel notices the presence among the mourners of a mysterious dwarf who pulls out a few skeletons from his father's closet.

One thing leads to the other giving rise to some dramatically hilarious situations. Although some slapstick tactics (like the obnoxious and demanding paralysed uncle) have been employed,the flick is out an about sinecerely directed towards being a situation comedy.The actors are composed in their performances.

Director Frank Oz  makes a motley assortment of characters who’ve shown up to pay their respects. If you have a family, then you may find some of your more annoying relatives represented quite accurately in them. Tricky to pull off without reeking of artifice, but Death at a Funeral is only aimed at tickling your funny bone till your stomach aches, and it succeeds in doing so...