Death at a Funeral

Plot synopsis:
The film revolves around the funeral service for the father of Aaron (Chris Rock) and Ryan (Martin Lawrence). Aaron, the older son, and his wife Michelle (Regina Hall) live at his parents' home. Aaron and Michelle have been trying to buy their own home and have children but have been unsuccessful. Aaron envies Ryan because Ryan is a successful author, while he has not yet had his novel published, and resents his brother because Ryan would rather spend money on a first class airline ticket than help him pay for the funeral expenses.
Aaron and Ryan's cousin Elaine (Zoe Saldana) and her fiance Oscar (James Marsden) are on their way to pick up Elaine's brother Jeff (Columbus Short) before heading to the funeral. To ease Oscar's nerves, she gives him a pill from a bottle labeled as Valium. Jeff later reveals to Elaine that it is a powerful hallucinogenic drug he has concocted for a friend. Chaos ensues when Oscar hallucinates that the coffin is moving. He knocks it over, and the body falls out of the coffin.
Aaron is approached by an unknown guest, a dwarf named Frank (Peter Dinklage), who reveals himself to be the secret lover of his late father. Frank shows Aaron photos as proof and threatens to reveal them to Aaron's mother unless he is paid $30,000. Aaron tells Ryan, who suggests Aaron pay the money because Ryan claims he is buried in debt. When Aaron and Ryan meet with him to pay him, Frank starts to deride Aaron's ability as a writer and Aaron refuses to pay.
Frank begins to turn violent and puts his hand in his pocket, and tries to leave the room. Ryan attacks Frank and both Aaron and Ryan tie Frank up to prevent him from leaving. Norman (Tracy Morgan) comes in and sees what has happened. He gives Frank several doses of what he also believes is Valium to try to calm him down, before Jeff tells them it is the same hallucinogen Oscar took earlier.
While Jeff and Norman who are supposed to be watching Frank get distracted by Uncle Russell (Danny Glover), Frank frees himself from his bonds, jumps off the couch, and hits his head on the coffee table. With Aaron, Ryan, Jeff and Norman believing Frank is dead, they plan to put him in the coffin. While everyone is outside watching Oscar, who is now naked on the roof, threatening to jump because he saw Elaine's ex-boyfriend Derek (Luke Wilson) kissing her, Aaron and Ryan put Frank in the coffin.
Elaine tells Oscar that Derek forcibly kissed her and calms him down by revealing she is pregnant. With everyone back inside, they continue the eulogy. While Aaron awkwardly tries to give his speech, Frank shakes the coffin from inside it, then suddenly forces it open and emerges. The pictures fall out of his pocket, and Cynthia (Loretta Devine), Aaron and Ryan's mother, sees the pictures, screams at Frank, and starts to attack him. Aaron yells for everyone's attention as he delivers a moving and impromptu eulogy, saying that his father was a good man with flaws like everyone else.
The film ends with Aaron and Ryan saying goodbye while Ryan gets a ride to the airport by Martina, whom he had been trying to seduce all day. Aaron and Michelle are finally alone and going to try to have a baby. Aaron asks where Uncle Russell is and Michelle tells him that she gave him what she believes is Valium to calm him down. In the final scene Uncle Russell is on the roof naked, like Oscar had been, complaining about how "everything is so green".

Tags: psychedelic, comedy, stupid, sentimental

Review:
The film does not forget it takes place during a funeral and by the end a heartfelt eulogy is delivered in spite of the lunacy surrounding it.The humor is just dry enough to complement the somewhat dark comedy but not so dry that it alienates the audience.I haven't laughed this much at a film in a very long time...especially a film about a funeral..
The story was well structured, with groundwork laid early on for very funny bits much later in the film that got us laughing hard without hitting us over the head with the joke.
I went to this screening expecting it to be a serious movie -- you don't expect to be laughing at a movie with both "Death" and "Funeral" in the title -- but this film was hilarious!
(Oddly she has fewer creases on her face than her middle-aged sons.) This film reminded me a bit of "Four Weddings and a Funeral", but even more of those British madcap black comedies of the 60s with Alec Guinness or Peter Sellers..
You think it's going to be something serious but then the screw up by the funeral home's staff immediately changes the tone to a comedy and everything starts to carefully build up to a grand farce of mishaps, secrets and misunderstandings which eventually come together at the film's climax.
Farce is definitely a better description for the movie than black comedy because you don't feel guilty when you're laughing at all the horrible things that are happening in the movie.Yes there's crassness in the movie but it is also smart, subtle and it has a ton of heart.
The way the family tries to deal with the problems in secret while also trying to keep the funeral going is absolute comedy gold.
There were only 8 people in the whole audience, and my husband and I filled the room with howls of laughter.The actors are fabulous, especially Alan Tudyk, Khris Marshall, Andy Nyman, Peter Dinklage, and Daisy Donovan.
Actually, the whole ensemble was great.Especially Alan Tudyk keeps his frenetic performance absolutely hysterically funny, throughout most of the film!
If you love black-humor, "Death at a funeral" is definitely a must-see movie!
It's full of bizarre scenes (partly earthy though, nevertheless funny), great cast (especially Alan Tudyk, who's having quite a lot of laughs on his side) and the script is so awesome!
Well, this movie is not only not morbid, it is hilarious, not just in a black-comedy way, but in a straightforward matter that uses a funeral as the basis for generating some very funny scenes.
Death at a Funeral (DaaF) is directed by Frank Oz. Because of the nature of this film I believe Mr. Oz is paying homage to the late, great, director, Robert Altman, particularly his film A Wedding.
I have always been a fan of Frank Oz's work and this time he directs a black comedy about a dysfunctional family (at a funeral).
I do not enjoy the overuse of toilet humour (especially the way it has been done in numerous Hollywood summer movies) but here it is within context and the film itself is full of laugh out loud moments.
I did not expect Matthew Macfadyen to pull off comedy and here he was a funny surprise.The entire film is set during the funeral and what makes this film different from others of its genre is the comedy and the pace is pretty smooth.
It's the kind of film that may not appeal to everyone but those who get it will roll on the floor laughing.I watched it during a tired evening and I thought I wouldn't be able to sit through it because I was so tired (not because I expected the movie to be bad or anything) but the constant laughing got me energized enough throughout.
Amazingly funny British comedy about funeral that went wrong in so many ways.
But one of those people has a secret regarding this man.Now, the thing that I wanted to see in this movie was funny situations and the characters dealing with them in funny ways.
"Death at a Funeral" is a hilarious British black comedy from 2007 starring Matthew MacFadyen, Peter Dinklage, Jane Asher, Alan Tudyk, Kris Marshall, Rupert Graves, and Peter Vaughan.A family gathers for the patriarch's funeral: his wife (Asher), his son Daniel (MacFadyen) and his wife Jane (Keely Hawes, MacFadyen's real-life wife), and his son Robert (Rupert Graves).
His name is Peter.That's all I'll say but the story becomes more and more bizarre and funny, including a hypochondriac with a discoloration on his wrist that he's sure is a dreaded disease, blackmail, nudity, a locked bathroom, and lots of other things.Very, very entertaining with fine performances, no one going for laughs, just playing the characters.
The great thing about British movies (and others) is that you discover a new actor that you like.Do not read this if you have not seen the movie.One of the funniest scenes in the movie is when the guys are talking about getting rid of a dead body and Andy Nyman says something like what do we know about getting rid of a dead body while he is rubbing his chest and nipples.
I was laughing outloud at him and discovered a new British actor that I will now follow in other films.This movie is indeed hilarious and a must see for fans of British movies and of unusual, different comedies..
It was hard to watch, a film so awful it made me feel that somehow it was all my fault, and it was too late to do anything about it.Its a shame that such a great character actor as Peter Vaughan (Uncle Alfie) is used in such a demeaning way.
Son Daniel wants his brother to help--but his brother is only interested in getting a girl into bed; a cousin's straight-laced boyfriend accidentally takes a hallucinogenic that makes him act quite crazy (leading to an uproarious--if sick--bit with a coffin); a little person shows up with some secrets that the family didn't know about; an elderly uncle swears nonstop and causes complications and various family members get involved with one calamity after another.I saw this as a special preview at a film festival.
It's the sort of thing that is great fun to watch but thank goodness it's not happening to people you know and love!
Wonderful dark comedy / farce, written and performed to perfection, with an endearing and convincing British cast making the most of the material by screenwriter Dean Craig.
The setting is ideal because who better than the Brits could deliver lines in such a hilariously deadpan way and try to keep a stiff upper lip while chaos reigns?Among the story threads here are the dead mans' son Daniel (Matthew MacFadyen) having to live in the shadow of his brother Robert (Rupert Graves), a successful novelist, Simon (Alan Tudyk) being given a "Valium" to help him calm down when in reality the pill he took was a hallucinogen, a diminutive blackmailer (Peter Dinklage) showing up at the funeral with a shocking revelation for one and all, and poor, put-upon Howard (Andy Nyman) being forced to repeatedly deal with a cantankerous, wheelchair-bound senior named Uncle Alfie (Peter Vaughan).
I would like to say that THIS version of "Death at a funeral" is the most hilarious film I have ever seen.
I recently watched the original "Death at a funeral" a second time and I again really enjoyed the film.
'Death at a funeral' is an awesome British comedy of its own kind but it does not contain dark humor.
But it wasn't me as a person, it was me as part of an amused audience.These sorts of things never work if you watch them alone, or with people other than those desperate to laugh.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements..
If you have ever seen a comedy, be it slapstick or black, then you will be sorely disappointed by this film.The makers have gleefully searched through hours and hours and hours (you get the point) of cutting room floor sketches and managed to kill any final sparks of humour that may have remained for our delectation.From the "funny" opening credits, to the crazy moment 90 minutes later when you're drilling your head off and wishing to God you too could climb into a coffin this is a remorseless long black limousine journey to predictableville.
Sadly there seem to be endless stops along the way for under-developed and quirk-less characters and a dialogue not half as enjoyable as a chat with your colleagues about a mis-typed spreadsheet.I can only assume that this film managed such a high mark from people that have never ventured near them magic moving screen things before.Perhaps the DVD will include deleted scenes and that may be where the comedy bits are located.
With its pathetic, charmless and tired clichés for characters, mixed with the usual borrowings from that 4 Weddings film, this is a movie to miss, notwithstanding the politely positive reviews that certain other irredeemably Anglophile IMDb members have given it.As with so many similar comedy films of late, all the best gags are shown in the trailer, and the full length context does nothing but detract from them..
The actors just looked like they had the ultimate time making this film and enjoyed telling the story and that makes the movie so much more fun.
The situations jut get wackier as the film continues.Death at a Funeral is just so funny, it's horrible situations, but you can't help but laugh, especially at Simon's situation with the hallucinates, him in the bathroom with the toilet paper was just priceless.
It takes a short and convenient amount of time to set things up, and after it does, Death at a Funeral launches into outrageous slapstick comedy, all the way to the last shot.I don't want to spoil very much, so I'll break it down to basic.
The only thing approaching funny is Alan Tudyk but even his comic talents are wasted here.I'm not going to go into what the film is about; after wasting 90 minutes of my life watching it I don't want to waste too much more time on it.
Manic British comedy attempts to speed up an initially slow start by introducing more and more absurdities into a funeral gathering until actually becoming anything worth laughing at.Though it tries to sweep viewers into any impending ridiculousness with increasing fervor, too often Death at a Funeral feels forced where it should feel funny.Certainly with a script not as dry as most British comedies and direction by Frank Oz, the movie feels calibrated for a cross-pollination market with enough restraint and shock to appease both sides.
I am doubting my sanity after reading some of the reviews again since I returned from the cinema.Pure rubbish.The plot is obvious which I don't mind and I can find Hugh Grant films entertaining but despite this film trying to emulate the classic sort of British black comedy and comparing itself to Four Weddings it was simply not of the same quality..
A first-grader raised entirely on franks 'n beans, Bratz and Hannah Montana ...* The only reasonable reaction to any of what goes on in this story is "WHO EFFING CARES?!?!" Let me be clear here: the only reason I fell compelled to so opine here isn't because this movie was *anything* - I mean there's nothing new to be said about movies of this sort - but because you all need to know how disappointed I am in all of you.If at any point in the future you watch a movie such as this and you say to yourself "I really like this movie, it was funny and I think *_____* would like it too" - kill yourself.
Watch this film if you've had a bad day like I had when I happened upon this movie at the video store.
Before we even get to the funeral-the main setting for the farce,we have already begun to form opinions of each character.One of the lovely things though about the movie is that the characters are filled out in such a short time despite the large cast that these early opinions mature in to pictures of more than one sided people.
Watch this film for some intelligent black humor,the well developed characters, the superb actors and the tears in your eyes-both from the bitter sweet eulogy and the hilarious laugh out loud funeral..
The key to making Death at a Funeral- a 'classic farce' about a recently deceased patriarch's funeral day at a house where chaos slowly but surely ensues- is to have just the right cast members, with a couple of possible surprises, and a fine touch on how to time every gesture however subtle (as the Brits can sometimes get, like awkward moments when the priest says patiently "get a move on already, I have other appointments!") or grandiose (a naked man hallucinating on a rooftop blowing spit bubbles, for only one of many examples), to a note that sparks up true hilarity.
But as a synthesis of possibilities for outrageousness in 2007, and even with hints of joy in the aftermath, it's a winner.Daniel (Matthew MacFadyen in a sublimely deadpan role where mostly he sulks or reacts as maybe the one "normal" person in the family) is burying his father, and is joined by people not seen in years, like a snobbish brother, a constantly embittered crank of an uncle, relatives who may be unknowingly high on acid (Alan Tudyk's finest performance of the absurd, playing in every shot as if it's got to be the funniest moment in the film, and many scenes are) or with allergies on their wrists, or with old lust renewed (skeezy Ewen Bremner, an odd and perfect choice for ladies man), or, of course, the mysterious little guy (Peter Dinklage) who carries a secret worthy of his blackmail request.
Not like other stupid comedy films which I hardly laugh, this movie made me laugh so hard.
Of course, what's funny to one person is dumb to another.Let me put it this way, then: In our house, "Death at a Funeral" has joined a select group of perennial comedies.
He uses the Force to give us a funny look at funerals.Peter Dinklage shows, and nobody really knows who he is, one of the guests (Alan Tudyk) has taken a hallucinogen thinking it was Valium, and every body is disappointed that Robert (Rupert Graves) isn't doing the eulogy instead of Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen).
Discovering this film is like watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail for the first time...only better.The premise of a serious, sober occasion, the funeral of a good but unexpectedly flawed man, is unusual to start with.
A classic British farce, Frank Oz and Dean Craig's "Death at a Funeral" will produce some of the deepest laughs you've had for awhile and prove that even death can provide hilarious comic situations.Dark humor is one way to put it, but "Death" isn't dark as much as it takes what should be a dark and dramatic subject and turns it into something hilarious.
Things get serious (or seriously funny) when a strange man (Peter Dinklage) who no one has ever met arrives with a secret about the deceased."Death at a Funeral" has a full cast of wonderful unknowns, perfect for the small family who gets way in over its head.
Only Tudyk, who had a role in American comedy "Dodgeball" and has done a lot of voice work, is recognizable and his performance, in which 90 percent of the film requires him to act like he's tripping, is responsible for much of the laughs early on.When a great concept for a farce clicks like it does here for Dean Craig, everything seems to work perfectly and this is one of those ideas.
While British comedies tend to be funny, "Death at a Funeral" comes to America as an exception: it is just a boring movie with a few inspired moments, uneven gags, an irregular cast and a terrible editing.Director Frank Oz chose to make fun out of any kind of possible situation that could happen anywhere, barely exploring the peculiar scenario (the funeral).
Maybe, for British people, seeing a man on a suit and underwear is funny, but, on this side of the Atlantic, it is just whatever.It is strange how a black humor comedy got so messed up, since inadequate jokes about death or cadavers would work already.
Actually, the only thing that elevates the quality of "Death at a Funeral" is the great use of the few good jokes  for an example, the acid trip goes on in the entire movie - , and some of its actors.MacFayden is the serious type, and his dull ending speech is too cliché, but he turns out well.
He trips during the whole movie, and the dumb-dumberer scenes only work because of his impeccable comic timing.This film has everything a comedy mustn't have: a bombardment of irregular jokes, a weak direction by Frank Oz, a screenplay that offers but a few original and funny situations and an overall lack of humor.
There's something about the way the British make movies that is quite appealing to me, right down to the film stock they use.
The plot is basically about almost everything going wrong in a funeral service in a black comedy funny manner and the jokes work sometimes.
Not all bad but think about Death At A Funeral this way - if this movie was American and was full of American accents, would you find it at all amusing?
Anyone who makes a comedy about a funeral and manages to pull it off deserves a medal and this is certainly one hilarious movie.
Great film, if you want to laugh and you're sick of watching American comedies with predictable jokes and have a more dry and intelligent sense of humour this film is for you.