The inspired absurdity of the film "Death at a Funeral" can be summed up in the line: "It's been sort of exciting hasn't it? For a funeral?"
The latest British comedy from director Frank Oz ("Bowfinger," "In & Out") combines kooky characters and outrageous situations to create a farce that will leave the audience chuckling even after they've left the theater.
The film opens in an upper-middle class family's living room, where a wake is about to be held. The son of the deceased, Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen), looks bewilderedly down into a casket and asks, "Who's this?"
As soon as the morticians rush out the door to retrieve the correct corpse, the rest of the family enters, and the scene is set for what inevitably turns into a funeral mired in hysterical mishap.
Daniel's successful novelist brother, Robert (Rupert Graves), arrives on a first-class flight from Manhattan, where he's been gallivanting for years. His strangely serene and aloof mother, Sandra (Jane Asher), is delighted by his arrival, and makes Daniel, who's already nervous to give the eulogy, even more uneasy.
Cousin Martha (Daisy Donovan) shows up with her boyfriend Simon (Alan Tudyk), to whom she has accidentally given a hallucinogenic drug concocted by her brother, Troy (Kris Marshall). Tudyk energetically plays the role of a tripping lunatic for the rest of the film, and occasionally evokes his performance as Steve the Pirate in "Dodgeball."
They are followed in by Daniel's friends, Howard (Andy Nyman), a hypochondriac, and Justin (Ewen Bremner), who harbors a secret crush on Martha he hopes to actualize during the wake. Uncle Alfie (Peter Vaughan), forever swatting his cane at someone and sputtering profanities, is in tow.
The appearance of a mysterious and smallish mourner, Peter (Peter Dinklage), adds to the array of personalities, and further complicates the plot, as he reveals a scandalous secret about the deceased. ts.
Oz and screenwriter Dean Craig do an excellent job of creating situations that showcase the quirky (or drug altered) personalities of the characters.
Confronted by one stressful problem after another, Daniel and his entourage of family and friends endeavor to keep the funeral from deteriorating into mayhem.
Hint: They fail, miserably and hilariously. As Uncle Alfie yells, hastening to get to a bathroom, "It's touch and go! Touch and go!"
There's nothing like a heavily accented, talented mélange of British actors to successfully portray characters trying to shove everything under the rug.
Part of what makes the movie so funny is how it pokes fun at clichéd, snooty British characters who become frantic when something (or ten things) go wrong, for fear of disrepute. However, when a scantily clad Tudyk climbs onto the roof and threatens to commit suicide as a vertically challenged man hops around on a couch, it may be too late.
While at some points the story proceeds at a slightly sluggish pace, the 90-minute film ultimately engages the audience. Plot shake-ups abound and the well-cast characters are tirelessly entertaining. Dryly comedic dialogue and outrageous events converge in what is surely the funniest funeral ever attended.