Movie Review - 'Dinner For Schmucks'

Dinner For Schmucks Starring Steve Carell and Paul Rudd Directed by Jay Roach Rated PG-13

A funny thing happens about halfway through Dinner for Schmucks: It stops being funny. The premise, lifted from a French film, would work best without redemption, but Schmucks is so concerned with the other shoe waiting to drop that it loses its way, its characters, and its sense of humor. That there are still some redeeming qualities should be pointed out early; that nearly all of them happen before the turn might go without saying. Tim (Paul Rudd) is bucking for a promotion at Fender Financial. He wants to move to the lofty 7th floor. That's where the action is. Even though he works on the 6th floor, that one flight of stairs is a different universe. For one thing, as his quirky assistant points out, the 7th floor doesn't smell like cabbage. He makes a bold move mid-meeting, taking everyone - including his boss - by surprise. Not yet on the 7th floor, Tim is nevertheless invited to a special dinner thrown by Fender's inner circle. The goal: Find a room full of idiots, make fun of them over a delicious dinner, and crown a "winner." It is not in Tim's nature to make fun of people, but this is his big chance. Still, Tim is on the verge of backing out of dinner when he runs right over Barry (Steve Carell). Barry had darted out into traffic to retrieve a dead mouse, models in his endless collection of dioramas depicting everything from Munch's The Scream to The Last Supper to an event from his own life, walking in on his now ex-wife sleeping with another man. Barry, it appears, could be a natural idiot, the kind that only comes along once in a great while, usually on the local news describing the tornado that ripped through his home or on the local news claiming his Powerball winnings. From the moment he meets Barry, misfortune follows Tim around. His girlfriend leaves his apartment, punctuating an argument over the thought that Tim might even take part in the dinner. While she's gone, Barry inadvertently coordinates a meeting between his new friend and a stalker Tim has been trying to avoid for three years. Tim's Porsche gets ruined. An important business brunch careens out of control. What should have been a simple meeting at the boss' place for dinner has become a comedy of errors. However, the biggest error here is that the film has sympathy. Not just for Barry, for whom it would be understandable, but also for Tim. Dinner for Schmucks makes us believe Barry is the real McCoy, and while it's OK for us to see that maybe his little mice dioramas are in fact terribly creative and that he could just be woefully naive, the rules should be different for Tim. He is, after all, the real idiot here. The English are particularly good about laughing both with and at cads. Witness Basil Fawlty, perhaps John Cleese's best creation. He's almost entirely irredeemable, and while everyone around him has their moments, it is always Basil who is outsmarted (usually by himself) and left a wreck. And it's funny because he thinks he's better than everyone else. In Dinner for Schmucks, Tim recognizes the error of his ways too soon and too fully. And then it's not fun anymore. Carell's Barry is a well-written boob of the highest order, completely oblivious to the real world. Rudd's Tim is anything but, and from time to time it shows on Rudd's face. That's not the first time; watch the dreadful, inescapably amateurish Over Her Dead Body sometime. On second thought... There are scenes and cameos tailor-made for trailers, like the two scenes that feature Zach Galifianakis. The first one's funny, the second one is the first one all over again. Jemaine Clement is also given very little to do, but he mines a few laughs, too, but again, only in the first half of the film. What might have been is a much better film than what is, and a funnier one, too.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Rudd just looked like he was on autopilot on this one.

In the original, the Rudd character was a complete jerk so it was funny watching his life get ruined by a total idiot. Here, he's meant to be a nice guy with some corporate ambitions and it's not very interesting.

[Tjei]

In the 90s this would've starred Danny Glover and Martin Short.

[saw this movie]

This movie was painful to watch and was a waste of money. I was expecting some laughs and got none. Watch the movie CYCLE for free instead at www.myspace.com/cyclethemovie

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