Monday, March 03, 2008

Death at a funeral

Rating: 3/5

It's been a while since there's been a genuinely good British farce, but this one pressed all the right buttons.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect out of this. There had been some review comments about cruel humor, which I just didn't see. The story was well structured, with groundwork laid early on for very funny bits much later in the film that got us laughing hard without hitting us over the head with the joke. The moments of comic tension were good, without that excruciating sense that someone was going to be horribly embarrassed, or hurt, or whatever, that American films seem to have. The situation is very well known to everyone who's been to a family funeral, although in America we would have the service in a funeral home or church, and we've all had moments when we want to laugh at the wrong time, or notice something a little out of the ordinary in the service that seems to cry out for comment. Go see it, enjoy, and leave the political correctness at home.

2 comments:

Admin said...

Laughing at the moments of grief looks pretty odd in all societies.

Marti said...

Good review. I wanted to see this one, but never got around to it. I wonder if there are subtitles. Sometimes those British accents get pretty thick.