Death at a Funeral

"[glances into the coffin] Who is this?"
"Pardon me?"
"This is not my father."

Daniel (MacFayden) knows the day is off to a rocky start when the mortuary sends the wrong body to his home, and his father's funeral is only a few hours away! Sharing his grief is his mother Sandra (Asher) who is visibly upset, but still has enough spark to repeatedly snap at her Daniel's wife Jane (Hawes), who can't wait to get out of the house. They are waiting for the arrival of Daniel's more successful brother Robert (Graves) from America.

The family is joined by a dysfunctional crew of mourners (most are family). First the pastor, Reverend Davis (Wheatley) is crunched for time. Their cousin Martha (Donovan) has brought her nervous boyfriend Simon (Tudyk) to meet her father (Egan), but her brother Troy (Marshall) makes things worse. And then there is their hypochondriac friend Howard (Nyman) who brings along sad sack Justin (Bremner) and grumpy Uncle Alfrie (Vaughan). And the funeral is crashed by a mysterious guest (Dinklage).

All Daniel wants is to have a nice, quiet ceremony to celebrate his father's life, but nothing goes as planned. There is death. There is destruction. Oh yes, and Simon runs around naked for awhile (lol).


After seeing the previews (and knowing that Alan Tudyk was involved) I really wanted to see this film...and I wasn't disappointed. Who knew a funeral could be so chaotic and funny? The cast plays to the zaniness of their characters and the situation as a whole. They may not be large household names (although I did recognize quite a few members of the cast), but they are excellent, although Tudyk steals the film and Dinklage steals all of his scenes. I was laughing throughout the film. The characters use a significant amount of language, but it doesn't really detract from the film, it only makes it funnier. The only lesser moments were with the character of Justin...his subplot just doesn't work, although he does add humor to other sections of the film. Superb!

Dude, it's quotable: there are lots of snarky comments and some truly memorable scenes.
Rent it: Totally worthwhile.

Death at a Funeral (2007) 90 minutes
Rating: R for language and drug content.
Director: Frank Oz
Starring: Matthew MacFayden as Daniel
Keeley Hawes as Jane
Andy Nyman as Howard
Ewen Bremner as Justin
Daisy Donovan as Martha
Alan Tudyk as Simon Smith
Jane Asher as Sandra
Kris Marshall as Troy
Rupert Graves as Robert
Peter Vaughan as Uncle Alfie
Thomas Wheatley as Reverend Davis
Peter Egan as Victor
Peter Dinklage as Peter