From the writers and actors who brought you “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy†and “The 40 Year-Old Virgin†comes “Dinner for Schmucks,†a movie unlike any of the aforementioned films. With a shaky plot and unrealistic character combinations, this lackluster screwball flick was a bad one.
Director Jay Roach, the creative mind behind Austin Powers and Meet the Parents series’, has come back to the spotlight with his latest project, Dinner for Schmucks. Revolving around Tim, played by Paul Rudd, who wants to be promoted to a newly open position at his place of employment, this film drags badly at times.
Offered an opportunity to obtain this new position only if he makes it through, as his boss puts it, a “dinner of winners,†which is more like the dinner of idiots. For this event, Tim has to bring with him a unique, but strange individual for the enjoyment of everyone else who is in on the joke. By coincidence, Tim meets and quickly befriends a man named Barry, portrayed by Steve Carell, who becomes Tim’s ideal idiot for the dinner. Barry works for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), has a failed marriage under his belt and uses dead mice to reenact classical masterpieces to make up for his lack of a social life.
Carell and Rudd’s depictions of their roles were spot on and believable to audiences around the country. The comedy did not fail when it came to being funny either. It was the plot and sequence of events that were the problem in this film. The events had absolutely nothing to do with the true intention of the film. It felt like the movie dragged on in the middle which can result in viewers becoming bored and uninterested with it. A few of those viewers did actually leave the theater.
It may be reasonable give a stranger your cell or home phone, but it is unreasonable to give a complete stranger your address and allow them to contribute to some of the most important decisions of your life. Through Barry, Tim was convinced that his girlfriend was cheating on him, had him propose to his stalker and almost ruined his attempts for the promotion.
That was an example of the movie filler that was used to past the time which also circulates around Tim’s life- a life that consists of the oldest story in the book- boy meets and falls in love with a girl, boy loses girl and, surprisingly, boy wins the girl back. The dinner was a minute part of the movie and focused mostly on the event that leads up to it. These events included visiting Barry’s boss (Zach Galifianakis) who loves to play mind games with him and makes his appearance at the dinner as a master of mind control, the third peg in the love triangle that ended Barry’s marriage.
Regardless of the pitfalls of the flick, there was an amazing cast of celebrities that brings at the rear as dysfunctional participants at the dinner. Stand- up comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham plays a couple on their first wedding anniversary as a man and puppet. Actress Octavia Spencer’s character can channel the spirits of dead animals. Actor/comedian Chris O’Dowd is the fencing champion, who happens to be blind.
The movie wasn’t that good due to the poor plot, but it had its moments of comic relief. Through the misadventures of the two main characters, the ridiculous dinner shenanigans and the fleeting idea of a potential promotion, it was a little fun while it lasted, but is certainly not something that people would want to see again.
Leave a Reply