Death At A Funeral
by Catherine Lee

       Death at a Funeral is a quintessential British comedy, full of accidents, mishaps, slapstick, surprises and supreme silliness. Somehow the British manage to mix the lowest comedy with touching moments expressed by characters ridiculous and compelling and wrap these elements into a satisfying whole.

       I donÕt think of Frank Oz, the voice of Yoda and Miss Piggy and the director of two very funny, very American comedies – Bowfinger and In and Out – as the go-to guy to direct a very British comedy. But Oz is British, and Death at a Funeral represents a delicious homecoming.

       Rated R for language (justified by frequent four-letter words) and drug use (all accidental), I saw Death at a Funeral with friends aged 16 to 80, and all were laughing.

       The opening credits role as a the animated icon of a coffin slowly moves slowly down the twisted country roads of a map of England. We know immediately that weÕre not in Kansas anymore. The coffin icon makes little twists and turns and roundabouts and ends at the dead (pun intended, IÕm sure) end of a little lane. When the map ends and the picture opens weÕre at the door of the kind of country home found only in England. Dignified gentlemen carry the coffin into the house. A young man waits to take last look at the beloved deceased. ÒThatÕs not my father,Ó he says. The somber mood is broken as they hustle the coffin back to exchange coffins.

       Daniel (Matthew Macfayden) is worried enough about giving the eulogy. The coffin mix-up is just the first of many things to happen that are far from the solemnity and order a funeral should inspire. Competing throughout Death at a Funeral are movie madcap nonsense and genuine grief and loss.

       The best humans have trouble reconciling life with grief and sadness. You may be shaking with despair. You may have just seen the shadow of death pass by. You may be sad and holding the hand of someone shaking with despair. But from deep inside come the very human survival urges to live, laugh and love. Death at a Funeral mines this contradiction of emotions so sharply it feels like a razorÕs edge. Just when you think the filmmakers have gone too far, they go farther or slip into reverse with amazing dexterity.

       Screenwriter Dean Craig shapes the story beautifully while giving us sharp dialogue spoken by very recognizable characters. The widow, Sandra, played by Jane Asher (once engaged to Paul McCartney and allegedly proposed to by all four Beatles), says to her daughter-in-law, ÒTea can do many things dear, but it cannot bring someone back from the dead.Ó In talented hands, the relationship between two people can be summed up in a single sentence.

       The cast of characters in Death at a Funeral includes many concise portraits of behavior and relationships. Daniel, who has yet to show his first novel to anyone except his understanding but increasingly ready-for-change wife Jane (Keeley Hawes), has been taking care of his parents since his brother Robert (Rupert Graves) fled to New York and became a successful novelist. These two have a strained relationship. Daniel spends much of the film practicing his eulogy speech, even as he hears from everyone present how shocked and disappointed they are that Robert, the writer in the family, isnÕt delivering the eulogy. Cousin Martha (Daisy Donovan) is on her way with her nervous fiance Simon (Alan Tudyk) and her brother Troy (Kris Marshall.) Simon is nervous and insecure, sure heÕll never be liked by his future father-in-law who does not think he is good enough for his daughter.

       Troy is studying to become a pharmacist and is making his own illicit drug concoctions on the side. A pill bottle marked valium but filled with a special hallucinogenic concoction figures prominently in the mix-ups. Poor Simon takes one of these pills and spends most of the film naked on the roof. Death at a Funeral is an ensemble experience, but Alan Tudyk gets extra exposure and handles the physical humor deftly.

       Regular readers know IÕm no fan of poop humor, but I did laugh at the poop humor here. Death at a Funeral makes a self-absorbed hypochondriac the victim of the poop humor, so I had just the excuse I needed.

       Peter Dinklage (The Station Agent) plays a mysterious guest at the funeral who turns out to have a taste for blackmail. He doesnÕt seem to deserve the punishment he receives, but things are not as they seem, which happens a lot in Death at a Funeral. The humor in Death at a Funeral is dark at times. There are whiplash turns where you are laughing and embarrassed to be laughing, and suddenly there isnÕt anything to laugh about anymore. Then the film recovers its sense of humor.

       Spoiler alert: Once the big family secret is brought to the surface, this group of characters bond together to give the man they loved a fond farewell. But during everything after the reveal, I couldnÕt help thinking about the sad real-life character, Sen. Larry Craig. There is something sad about a man living a secret life. Living such a complete lie isnÕt kind to any family, despite whatever fiction and rationalization is employed. But if that man has treated his family with love, consideration and affection, those qualities can outlive the lie. I donÕt think the rapidity with which the family of the dearly departed in Death at a Funeral comes to terms with lies that have shaped their family life for a long, long time are all that impossible to believe. This fictional story is a marked contrast to the sad spectacle of a grown man so insulated from reality that he has no idea how ridiculous he looks playing the victim and creating more sad fictions to explain how he wound up in trouble.

       Our capacity to forgive and understand lives full of complexity on issues that should be private is sorely strained when the subject in question has spent his public, professional life pandering to the bigotry of homophobia under the fictional reasoning of Òfamily values.Ó IÕm quite sure Sen. Craig loves his family, but in his public life he has fomented a culture of homophobia, ignorance and unmerited self-righteousness. Thank goodness we can go laugh it off at funny, bizarrely honest film like Death at a Funeral.

       Catherine Lee is the executive director of Fort Wayne Cinema Center, the only independently operated movie theater in Fort Wayne, specializing in independent, foreign, documentary, specialty and classic films.

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