Gail sees a movie: Dinner for Schmucks
Dinner for Schmucks has two main problems. It is not very funny and not very interesting. This is a shame, because there is lots of comic talent languishing in this film. The initial idea has potential, but this film collapses under the weight of the poor screenplay by David Guion and Michael Handelman. Yes, it apparently takes two men to write a bad screenplay.
Tim (Paul Rudd) is close to getting a promotion, but his boss Lance Fender (Bruce Greenwood) requires that he first attend a very special dinner. It seems that the higher ups in this company have a monthly dinner where each guest is required to bring an idiot to the dinner for the guests to laugh at and ridicule. At the end of the dinner, the group awards a prize to the biggest idiot. Tim’s girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak) objects to the idea, but a chance encounter with weird Barry (Steve Carell) has Tim thinking he has found the perfect idiot. Barry works for the IRS but his love is taxidermy and making dioramas using stuffed mice. Barry wreaks all kinds of havoc in Tim’s life (Tim describes him as a “tornado of destruction”) in the days before the dinner, and nearly destroys Tim’s relationship with Julie. Julie begins spending more time with pretentious artist Kieran (Jemaine Clement) and Tim cannot get rid of Barry. The climax of the film comes at the dinner for idiots.
Perhaps the film is funnier in French (Dinner for Schmucks is based on Francis Veber’s Le Diner de Cons) but the first half of this film is merely annoying. The second half of the film is slightly better than the first half, and contains some oddly moving moments. The dinner scene where Barry sees the “idiots” as extraordinary people, his pain when he realizes that he is being laughed at and Tim’s genuine remorse are emotional moments in this film. But there are not enough of these moments to compensate for the lack of laughs. Even worse, director Jay Roach misses major opportunities for big laughs in the final dinner scene. The mimed fight between Barry and nemesis Therman (Zach Galifianakis) should have been over the top hilarious, but Roach directs with too much restraint. Moreover, there is no reason why this film should have a running time of almost two hours. It might have made a good thirty minute skit. Credit the actors for the few good moments, but even this talented cast cannot save Dinner for Schmucks.
Paul Rudd has the somewhat thankless job of playing straight man to Steve Carell’s goofy Barry. Unlike the charm he showed in I Love You, Man, the charismatic Rudd is forced to play Tim as somewhat unlikable and spends most of the film reacting with annoyance to Barry’s antics. Rudd and Stephanie Szostak have zero chemistry here and we do not really care about Tim and Julie. Steve Carell imbues Barry with a childlike sweetness, as he misunderstands sexual references and lovingly constructs his “mousterpieces.” Even when Barry unintentionally insults Tim, he does it without malice. Carell’s rubbery facial expressions and wide innocent eyes make Barry funny and likable, even though the script gives Carell little help. Zach Galifianakis, the best thing about The Hangover, is very funny as the dickey wearing Therman, who believes he is an expert at mind control. The scenes where Therman bullies Barry show Galifianakis and Carell to be a very funny combination. But the best moments in this film belong to the hilarious Jemaine Clement. He manages to make the pretentious artist Kieran attractive and compelling, even as we laugh at his ridiculous ideas. Clement completely commits to this character, which makes the scenes of Kieran making performance art of an orgy in a pastoral scene hilarious. All of his scenes are funny, and this film could use more funny scenes.
Carell and Rudd have been in better films together (The 40 Year Old Virgin) and apart. See one of those and skip this dinner.
Dinner for Schmucks. Directed by Jay Roach. Steve Carell (Barry), Paul Rudd (Tim), Zach Galifianakis (Therman), Jemaine Clement (Kieran), Stephanie Szostak (Julie), Lucy Punch(Darla), Bruce Greenwood (Lance Fender), David Walliams (Müeller), Ron Livingston (Caldwell) and Larry Wilmore (Williams). Paramount Pictures, 2010.
Gail sees a movie appears every Wednesday.
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Great review, Gail. I had already determined not to see this film based on the title. The French “cons” is miles away from the crudely unfunny “shmucks.” The sensibility of the adaptation seems contained in that infelicitous translation. (I found it amusing that Drexel Activities which showed the film last week mistitled it “Dinner at Shmucks.” They must have thought that this was just an odd ethnic name.)
Thanks, Paula. It is interesting that no one in the film uses the term “schmucks.” But “Dinner at Shmucks” is a film I would see.
Let’s not forget all the details the movie lacked. Like how you only see Barry’s ex once and there is not confrontation of the two. The crazy artist was barely in the film enough to make an impression. And what was with Darla? She should have been in the film more as well.
Don’t even get me started on Julie. She claimed several times that she loved Tim much, yet she refuses his proposal twice without giving any reason to it. It wasn’t funny, cute, or plot advancing. It seemed not even she could care for Tim.