'Death at a Funeral' - Movie Review

The movie opens with a coffin being delivered to an English country house. When it's opened, Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen) discovers the body that's been delivered isn't that of his father as it's supposed to be, but a stranger. This is pretty much the most tasteful joke in the movie. What we get:

  • a guy attending to flirt with a one night stand (although she's now in a permanent relationship and he knows it)
  • Alan Tudyk high on a mix of acid and ketamine - given to him by his girlfriend who thought it was valium
  • wrestling a cranky, disabled old man onto a toilet, resulting in someone getting shit on their hand ... and their face
  • a gay lover of the dead father trying to blackmail the sons out of £15,000 - or he'll show graphic pictures of the relationship to the funeral attendees
  • two men wrestling a dwarf to the ground and tying him up
  • adding another person to the coffin

This is essentially a 1960s slapstick farce to which has been added all the toilet and drug humour that couldn't be put in back then. If you're in for this kind of humour, it's done well by some good actors. I can enjoy this sort of stuff in small doses, but an entire movie is way too much.