Review:
Death at a Funeral

Few things in life are sadder than funerals. Except, maybe, for taxes, elderly racists, the Tories, World Cup fixtures and comedies that aren’t funny. Somehow, this star-studded ‘comedy’ manages to makes death seem like an escape route. Quite remarkable, especially given the quality of the cast on offer.

Aaron (Chris Rock) is preparing to bid his father farewell in a family funeral at the house he has found himself trapped in. Between paying for everything, organising the chaos of his extended family and trying to get his wife Michelle (Regina Hall) to stop having sex with him, he also has to give the eulogy, even though everyone would rather hear from his best-selling novelist brother Ryan (Martin Lawrence).

Travelling to the funeral are Uncle Russell (Danny Glover), an angry wheelchair-bound cripple who is being looked after by Norman (Tracey Morgan), a hypochondriac with a rash on his hand. Accompanying Norman is Derek (Luke Wilson), invited by Duncan (Ron Glass), who wants Derek to date his daughter Elaine (Zoe Saldana). Unfortunately, Elaine is dating Oscar (James Marsden), who, in turn, is so nervous about meeting Duncan that Elaine gives him one of her brother’s Valium pills. Naturally, Elaine’s brother Jeff (Columbus Short) is actually a drug maker and Oscar is going to a funeral while high on powerful hallucinogens.

If that over-extended and long-winded set-up sounded like there was far too much to take into account in this film, that’s because there is. The real protagonist of the film is the funeral itself, although that might make the film sound far smarter than it is.

Death at a Funeral is a remake of a British black comedy released in 2007. Apparently the humour didn’t make in the translation as, instead of ‘black comedy’, what’s left is ‘black actors doing unfunny shtick’. The film stumbles from painfully unfunny slapstick moment to painfully unfunny slapstick moment with the pace and gracefulness of a drunken gazelle. Ha! Danny Glover is hitting people in the head with a walking stick! Ho! Four men are wrestling a dwarf to the ground! Hee! Tracey Morgan has an old man’s poo all over his hand! It’s like that, all the way through. Characters get together for reams of exposition, sometimes repeatedly saying the same things over and over, and then something silly happens and everything gets physical. It’s simply not funny.