Review of Death at a Funeral (2007) by Daniel K — 25 Jun 2010

"The coffin is moving!".

Meet the mourning British family that can't even get a simple funeral right. From simple mistakes in drugs to discovering the truth about everyone else and themselves, the family in Death at a Funeral shows an array of personalities, which makes the simple funeral far too enjoyable for the innocent audience member. Different stories between family members and perfect timing on scene changes makes Death at a Funeral one of the funniest films I've ever seen.

Because of the large family and conflicts in the film, a number of main characters have to make their appearance within the first ten to fifteen minutes of the movie. Daniel and Robert are the two sons of the deceased and show as the two, true main characters of the film. Their conflict between each other shows as sibling rivalry and the true, serious idea behind the film. Next, Simon, Martha, and Troy show up. Simon and Martha drive to Troy's flat, where Martha gave Simon what she thought was Valium. Instead, it ended up being a hallucinogenic drug that Troy was holding for a friend. The drug ended up making Simon into, what appeared to be, a complete psycho to everyone else that didn't know him. Justin and Howard show up next, who picked up Uncle Alfie from the nursing home. Justin loves Martha, which puts another interesting conflict in the film. Finally, Peter arrives, who introduces himself to Daniel as the deceased man's friend, but he hides a secret that ends up putting the family through a crazy fiasco that makes the best and worst come out of some of the characters.

Story wise, Death at a Funeral shows the worst case scenario of one of the worst things that could happen to a family. Dealing with the discovery of the deceased through the film, Daniel and Robert deal with hiding the truth while trying to get the funeral over and done with. At the same time, drugged out Simon unknowingly tries to destroy the funeral by seeing things that weren't actually there. Most of the laughs come from Simon's side of the story, showing the struggles of being sane while seeing and hearing things that aren't actually there. Conflict and humor grow through the entire movie, timing scenes and hilarity together to make the best moments just grow and grow until the seriousness almost hits the audience square in the face.

The characters through the film, although very different in design, were very well put together and showed the best and worst of themselves in different scenes of the film. Their reactions to the situations they were thrown in were great, sometimes priceless. Their reactions made me almost feel like I was watching real people instead of actions being characters on the screen. There were a few scenes where I was a little bored, but due to the importance of creating the realism for the characters portrayed on the screen, I still watched and enjoyed what was on screen. Even the awkward scenes that I felt uncomfortable watching were really well done, enjoyable, and made the movie seem even better than I originally thought it was going to be.

Death at a Funeral was a very well done farce that, I thought, showed a lot between characters in a family that could potentially happen if the family was strange enough for it. With great acting, a well put together story, and characters that make the movie even more enjoyable every moment, Death at a Funeral dares to break the boundaries of a great family comedy. Anyone that loves a British comedy would love Death at a Funeral, though the humor isn't made for everyone. I would recommend Death at a Funeral looking for humor that creates side spitting laughs.