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Dinner For Schmucks
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Zach Galifianakis, Jemaine Clement, Bruce Greenwood
Director: Jay Roach
Taken from the original French film Le Diner De Cons (The Dinner Game) and Americanised, Dinner for Schmucks stars Paul Rudd as Tim, a mid level executive who's desperate to break through to the upper levels of the board room.
One day, he manages a break through by impressing his boss (Greenwood) over how to net a potential new client Mueller (David Walliams) and is invited into the upper echelons of the board room.
However, on arrival there, he's told of a monthly dinner hosted by his boss which he's duly invited to. But the crux of the dinner is that each of them has to bring an idiot along as a dinner date for their collective amusement - and it gets worse for Tim as he realises the boss picks a winning idiot to give a prize to.
That's where Steve Carell comes in - his IRS worker Barry is run over by Tim. And as Tim talks to Barry, he realises this taxidermist could be his in to win the Dinner. You see, Barry makes diorama and famous scenes with dead mice (eg the Mousea Lisa) and is clearly some kind of idiot in Tim's eyes.
But when Barry enters Tim's life, he brings a whirlwind of chaos and devastation causing Tim's girlfriend Julie to walk out on him and compound Tim's fears that Julie's having an affair with artist Kieran Vollard (a brilliant Jemaine Clement).
So Tim's life is in tatters - can it all be salvaged?
I have mixed feelings about this film (and no I've not seen the original French farce)- Paul Rudd puts in yet another good and likeable act - and Steve Carell is once again, another version of Steve Carell but starts to irritate a little as the film continues. However, it's nice they've made him a loser with a back story that's revealed near the end rather than just a goof.
Dinner For Schmucks is also slow to set up - it's all about the build up to the dinner and when it comes (very near the end), it's very very funny (probably the best part of the film) but it doesn't feel like that's the main thrust of the film. Although a running gag about Vollard knowing Nelson Mandela is funny in Carell's hands because of the idiot naif way in which he carries it out - he believes it's Morgan Freeman.
That's really the crux of this - if you find that funny, you'll like Dinner for Schmucks.
However Zach Galifianakis and Jemaine Clement are the best in this - Galifianakis of the Hangover film plays a man who believes he has mind control - and Clement's artist Vollard (complete with lank pony tail and general artist insanity) is another strong entry into Clement's continuing line of oddball characters.
Dinner For Schmucks can be best described as a meal which promises so much - in the end it resembles a buffet which initally has you salivating but ultimately leaves you wanting.
Watch the trailer for Dinner For Schmucks here.
