Camden New Journal - Movies: Death at a Funeral

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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 1 November 2007

Boris Becker lookalike Simon (Alan Tudyk)

Funeral’s black humour is dead funny!

DEATH AT A FUNERAL
Directed by Frank Oz
Certificate 12a

RELAX, everyone. That tearing sound is simply the noise of audiences up and down the land splitting their sides at this hysterical comedy reminiscent of Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Only this time it’s just the funeral.
In the hands of maverick director Frank Oz, well known for his screwball humour, this wondrous essay into absurdity centres on a group of doting relatives gathered in a country house for the funeral of the head of the family.
The corpse resides in its casket in the living room, and they crowd around like vultures to pay their last respects.
The problem, as in so many true-life situations, is that the occasion unleashes a torrent of back-biting, jealousies and skeletons scrambling out of closets.
Belly laughs erupt by the second, and the scenario reminded me of the very best that the old Ealing comedies used to serve up.
“I feel my heart has been wrenched out of its rib-cage,” says one guest forlornly.
“Well,” responds a friend, trying to lift her spirits, “that’s grief for you!”
One thing leads to another like a line of dominoes collapsing when the first one gets a gentle push. Over they go.
Funniest of them all is Simon (Alan Tudyk), a Boris Becker lookalike who conquers his nerves with a Valium pill, only to discover he has taken an LSD tablet by mistake, and spaces out on the spot. Hallucinating madly, he talks to the shrubs and immerses his head in the privet hedge to continue the conversation as if he has been decapitated.
There won’t be a dry seat in the house!

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