Folles funérailles

I was up very late last night and I thought I would watch half this movie before sleeping and the other half today. But, I was laughing so much during the whole 90 minutes that I wasn't even much aware of how much time went by. It's been ages since my jaw ached from watching a movie. 'Eulogy' is one of the funniest films. There have been numerous movies about dysfunctional families but what makes this one different is the unique characters, the novel jokes, the excellent ensemble cast, a fresh script and it's genuine fun.

Michael Clancy's direction and screenplay are quite amusing. It would have been very easy to mess up a film like this one by adhering to clichés but Clancy's novel treatment makes it a refreshing experience. Where else will you hear lines like 'You don't throw a lemon at me in front of a lesbian' or 'She has made a business out of persecuting me and I'm supposed to sit here, at my father's funeral, and watch her *beep*-sing at Samantha?'? Alright, they sound a lot better withing the context of the movie.

All the actors do a remarkable job and terrifically fit together as a messed up family that includes a dead father (the skilled Rip Torn), a suicidal mother (a sublime Piper Laurie), a chronically angry daughter (welcome back Debra Winger) and her husband , a hormonal son (the hilarious Ray Romano), a sassy daughter and her no-nonsense fiancée (played brilliantly by Kelly Preston and Famke Janssen), a pot-smoking son (a superb Hank Azaria), his questioning daughter (a luminous Zooey Deschanel who marvelously carries the film), her twin perverted cousins and their three selectively mute younger cousins. To support the family there's a sensual nurse (a fiery Glenne Headly) and a guy from the neighborhood (a charismatic Jesse Bradford). Quite a magnificent ensemble!

The entire comedy elements are very well displayed. At times it is wacky and at times subtle but it all goes well together and remains enjoyable and wildly charming from start to end. With movies like this, who needs laughing gas?

When the patriarch of a dysfunctional family dies, his sons and daughters travel with their families to the funeral. While they stay in the house of the matriarch waiting for the funeral and the testament, secrets are exposed and wounds are opened in the relationships of the members.

Watching "Eulogy" for the second time, I found it a funny dark comedy. The humor is not easy, but the great cast has good performance and there are many cynical situations. The Brazilian title misleads the viewer. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil) : "Um Funeral Muito Louco" ("A Very Crazy Funeral")

Just barely watchable, a few jokes were good. If you have nothing better to do on a weekend this is a good way to spend a couple of hours. If you miss Ray Ramano, this is for you. Most of the sibling situations are cliche. It's OKK.

Eulogy is centered around the death of a family patriarch, Edmund Collins (Rip Torn). After the death comes the funeral, which is where this story takes place, from the time of his death up until the funeral, where this quite dysfunctional family has to live together for the next few days. An ordinary cast could not have done the job that this one did. They turned what seemed to be a regular movie into a pretty funny movie. I guess it was supposed to be a dark comedy, but it was not all that dark to me. The character development was quite good, for a movie that featured so many key players, it manages to let you get to know just about everyone pretty well.

Kate Collins (Zooey Deschanel) is the granddaughter of Edmund and is asked by her grandmother to deliver the eulogy, something she was hesitant about doing, considering she really knew very little about the man. Despite her constant asking, her family could not come up with any nice stories about her grandfather to tell. Zooey is pretty much the straight (wo)man in this comedy.

Daniel Collins (Hank Azaria) is Edmund's son and Kate's father. Daniel was a child actor whose big fame came when he coined a catch phrase in a peanut butter commercial, making him Edmund's favorite son. He and Skip Collins (Ray Romano) were my favorite characters.

Skip Collins is Edmund's son and Kate's uncle. Skip was the son who was always trying to get his father's attention and felt he was the unloved one because of Daniel's success. He was probably the funniest character in the movie, along with his twin sons and Daniel.

The twin sons of Skip are named Fred and Ted Collins (Curtis and Keith Garcia). They are at that age where pretty much everything turns them on, so when their aunt and her "lifemate" showed up, it was all fun for them.

There are many more characters and dysfunctional family situations here that I could not get to them all in a short review, but this movie turned out better than I would have thought and is worth watching at least once. 7/10

I work for a large video chain. I see so much product come on a weekly basis. And quite frankly, a lot of it is crap! I try to choose carefully. I look at the cover art, I read synopsis, I follow film production. I took this home and ended up watching it at 10:30 at night thinking I'll check it out a bit then go to bed. I ended up watching the whole thing. Now look, I'm not a film critic, a journalist, or pretentious film snob. I just know when I like something and if it works. I laughed my @*% off. That cast was a dream. Piper Laurie was wonderful as the matriarch of this goof ball family. I sat watching matching up personalities with my own family members. It's impossible not to. I won't go into story details. Just check it out. I think you will be glad you did.