Eulogy

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.

Lately I have not seen many films at all that I really like or can honestly recommend. Then, as if from nowhere, my friend saw Eulogy on the stand at a movie rental place and said it sounded good. As soon as the rented DVD was in my DVD player and on the main menu it was hilarious! It's not usual that I have such an optimistic approach to movies before I even see them, so I knew I was in for something good. During the movie there were several parts where we laughed so hard that we continuously had to rewind and catch up on parts that we laughed through. It's cynical, tongue-in-cheek, and good-natured. It has the sense of humor and attitude that real people have, and that's what's great about it. One thing that's rare in movies is something real. When you watch the movie you get the feel that you're dealing with real people, which is why this film is so easy to enjoy. It's like watching real people in hilarious situations. I've now recommended this film to dozens of people. Yes, Eulogy is an automatic favorite.

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 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?

Film Review: EULOGY

Directed & Written by: Michael Clancy. Produced by: Steven Haft, Richard B. Lewis & Kirk D'Amico. Director of Photography: Michael Chapman. Edited by: Richard Halsey. Music by: George S. Clinton. Released by: Lions Gate. Country of Origin: USA/UK/Germany. 85 min. Rated: R. With: Hank Azaria, Zooey Deschanel, Glenne Headly, Piper Laurie, Kelly Preson, Ray Romano, Rip Torn & Debra Winger.

It takes a much more dire occasion than a holiday to force the Collins family together. The death of Grandpa Collins (Rip Torn) finally brings the embittered family members under the same roof. Kate (Zooey Deschanel) and her has-been actor father (Hank Azaria) find themselves stuck with Uncle Skip (Ray Romano), a sleazy lawyer who has raised two sons so equally vulgar that their own mother has abandoned them. His sister Lucy (Kelly Preston) arrives with her lesbian lover Judy, announcing they're to wed; this sets off uptight Aunt Alice (Debra Winger) on a rampage. The family's bickering turns into an all-out brawl, with every possible insult and betrayal coming out of the wood work. And as if the constant feuding weren't enough, Grandma Collins (Piper Laurie) seems bent on offing herself with increasingly creative methods. By the time the funeral rolls around the plot has taken dozens of bizarre twists.

Rich with laugh-inducing dialogue and eccentric characters, this is a madcap comedy at its blackest. Ray Romano proves to be funnier as a slimy creep than as his nice-guy sitcom persona, and deadpan Zooey Deschanel shines as the film's central character. The cast as a whole makes the careful balance of comedic timing and delivery seem like second nature. While the film often falls short on logic, it succeeds in laughs.