Der Zufallslover

The Pallbearer will be compared with The Graduate. A graduate (Tom, played by David Schwimmer), only one year later, has an affair with an older woman. She is the mother of a dead guy named Bill. Tom did not know Bill but the mother thinks he was his best friend. He plays along. The affair starts but Tom is really in love with a younger girl named Julie (Gwyneth Paltrow). So far this is a lot like The Graduate and in my opinion this wasn't a good part of the movie although it had its funny scenes.

The comparison with The Graduate holds on in the main plot-line may be, but The Pallbearer takes a different way in the way it is shown to us. I liked how the movie developed from that moment on. Especially the ending is well-chosen.

David Schwimmer was a better lead than I expected, he wasn't that bad. Most funny scenes were happening because of him. Gwyneth Paltrow was lovely and for me she made sure I liked the movie a little more. It is not very good but it has a couple of good laughs, a nice story and a nice chemistry between Schwimmer and Paltrow.

"The Pallbearer", a schizophrenic cross-genre muddling of comedy, drama, and romance with idiosyncratic characters and a thin, marginally interesting story. Schwimmer is at the center of this slow moving, somewhat quirky flick about a young man who lives with his mother (Bosco anyone?) and courts a demure unassured girl (Paltrow) while having an affair with an older woman (Hershey). Most will find it difficult to get their head into this off-kilter story and its subtle tongue-in-cheek humor though it remains loyal to its purpose throughout...whatever that may be.

Maybe you need low expectations to enjoy anything about this movie--I actually had very few at all except that I remember it being called a "dark comedy"at the time of its release. Well, dark comedies can be very well done and extremely funny, Doctor Strangelove and Harold and Maude come to mind. Unfortunately "The Pallbearer" doesn't deliver--there are some moments which are undeniably funny, though the eulogy mentioned in the tag line wasn't one of them. The plot is a little thin to hang a movie on, in fact it might have been better done as an episode of "Friends," about twenty minutes could have handled the whole thing.

There's an immense amount of filler here--long, excruciating shots of David Schwimmer and his goofy expression as he tries to pretend he knows the poor loser from high school, recently deceased, that he can't remember, but is asked to act as pallbearer for.

Everyone in this movie seems to be in one form of pain or another--Paltrow keeps repeating how she "has to leave," but really doesn't explain why, in fact part of the plot seems to be her inability to explain why. Those who like romantic comedies should stay away, for those who like just plain dark comedies might want to look elsewhere as well; question is whether a couple of funny moments in an otherwise dull bleak movie is worth the time.

I would suspect that most reviewers on this page are disappointed for not being handed the cookie cutter romantic comedy that the poster art for this film suggests. Not getting the conventional romantic comedy was what I liked most about this well written and darkly hilarious film. In THE PALLBEARER, we are shown the effect that Gwyneth Paltrow's character has on David Shwimmer's character. In the end, Tom's the guy we're meant to focus on, not Julie, or even the relationship between the two. Even if the general consensus is that this film is sub-par, I'll have to stick to my conclusion that THE PALLBEARER was an exceptionally made black comedy.

This is a romantic comedy about a young man who is thrown through a roller coaster when he is asked to be a pallbearer at the funeral of a high school classmate he doesn't remember, and, in the process, runs into his high school crush.

As with many romantic comedies, in this movie, people meet, date, fall in love, make love, break-up and try to go on with their lives. There is a lack of suspense and intrigue in this movie, but some character development and heartfelt moments. The mediocre acting, though, made this a not-so-funny flick. If you're a fan of romantic comedies, it won't hurt to look for others.

Grade D+