Schmucks’ is chock full of screwball characters masquerading as normal and an oddly unhealthy love of dead mice. Still it has to be one of the funniest films I’ve seen this summer. Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and the rest of the cast deliver! I needed a good laugh and Dinner For Schmucks film delivered in a gut-busting way. Be prepared for some unique ranglings amongst a severely ‘off’ group of individuals and that’s just the supposed normal ones.
‘Schmucks’ follows Tim (Paul Rudd – The Shape Of Things), a young executive looking to move up in his big corporate stock brokerage (actually it’s nothing like a stock brokerage). When the opportunity to rise presents itself, Tim seizes it with a pitch to the big boss on how to snag a new client. With his move to a higher floor, supposedly better co-workers, and a pat life practically assured, Tim finds out that the catalyst for his eventual promotion is tied to his ability to produce the best guest at a dinner for idiots hosted by the company President. Whoever can bring the strangest, most perverse friend wins the competition. Through happenstance (witness the dangers of texting and driving), Tim meets Barry (Steve Carell – Bruce Almighty), a recently divorced social pariah who spends his days and nights recovering dead mice and turning them into magnificent frozen works of art. Barry becomes human fly paper to Tim who wants nothing more than to use him as a means to get his promotion. A human wrecking ball of spills and calamities, Barry proceeds to reunite Tim with a one-night stand he had years ago with a psychotic pain loving freak, wreck the delicate relationship Tim has with his current girlfriend, demolish his house and all of this happens before the dinner even takes place. The dinner itself is a cavalcade of oddities and personalities (none of which I will spoil for you here), that culminates in Tim’s realization of true friendship, what you really want out of life, and just how detailed you can get when creating masterpieces of art…using dead mice.
I got the feeling the cast had a great deal of fun making this film. Their cohesive nature and sharp timing made for some really great laughs. As you’d expect, Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) is in great form. He seems to be relegated to playing oddball characters but in ‘Schmucks’ it fits with the script and he shines as Therman, the mind controlling IRS agent. Jemaine Clement (TV’s Flight Of The Conchords) is his HBO character ‘Jemaine’ personified into the form of an artistic neophyte. With his self indulgent needs of creativity, and self-centered art, it almost seemed a graduation of the character he plays so well in the HBO series. Another ‘Conchords’ alum, Kristen Schaal (Norbit) joins the cast as Susana, Tim’s able bodied and pushy assistant.
Dinner For Schmucks film is far from superb, and at times eerie, witness the Swedish couple in the promo’s icy blue eyes. They almost seemed like ‘pod’ people, and I questioned if anyone from Sweden has eyes of such distinction (I Google’d it…and they do). Still, it couldn’t ruin a steady stream of laughter throughout the film. Director Jay Roach (Meet The Parents) notches another great comedy, and box office willing a follow up which will regale us with even more idiot dinners filled with characters just as entertaining and zany.
Watch Dinner For Schmucks on Gomovies