Ah yes...leave it to the Brits to put the "fun" back in "funeral."Frank Oz (AKA Miss Piggy) brings us this celebrated dark comedy all the way from the UK, documenting an ordinary funeral that goes extraordinarily wrong.
The entire film plays like a really, really good episode of Fawlty Towers in the way that many of the characters buzz around, hiding secrets and lying through their teeth in a vain attempt to maintain order and solemnity at an occasion that is quickly and drastically taking a turn for the funny and ridiculous.
Death At A Funeral makes excellent use of awkward and deadpan humour, but it is also not short on laugh-out-loud moments. And I can't possibly review it without mentioning that it sports close-up of two of the best single facial expressions I've seen captured on film.
In short, there's no lack of golden moments, I assure you.
I think what makes Death At A Funeral so humorous, however, is the fact that most of the characters aren't particularly likable.
If they were people the audience could emotionally bond with, the movie would cease to be a comedy--you would just spend the entire movie cringing and wondering why such bizarre punishments were being bestowed upon such lovely people.
But they aren't lovely. Most of the time, they just suck as people.
I mean, you go from whiny but mostly harmless protagonist Daniel on the one hand to Ewen Bremner's character Justin on the other--easily one of the greatest assholes in British cinema.
And I think that's why it's perfectly OK to laugh at the outlandish antics that go on--that, and the antics that writer Dean Craig comes up with are pretty damn funny in and of themselves.
Overall, I'd highly recommend Death At A Funeral for anyone who hasn't seen a good comedy in a while--it may not make you laugh so hard you pee your pants, but...you know...not everything can be Airplane!
Plus you'll save on laundry.
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