Photo by Photography by: Merie Weismiller
Zac Galifiniakis in "Dinner for Schmucks"
Tim, an up-and-coming executive, has just received his first invitation to the "dinner for idiots," a monthly event hosted by his boss that promises bragging ...
Rating: PG-13 for sequences of crude and sexual content, some partial nudity and language
Length: 114 minutes
Released: July 30, 2010 Nationwide
Cast: Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell, Stephanie Szostak, Jemaine Clement, Zach Galifianakis
Director: Jay Roach
Writer: Ken Daurio, David Guion, Michael Handelman, Cinco Paul, Francis Veber, Jon Vitti
In the first five minutes of "Dinner for Schmucks" there's no doubt what will happen. However, a reliably fine ensemble of comedians make it great fun getting to where you knew you were headed all along.
Based on the French film "Le Diner de Cons," the plot hinges on a yearly event put on by smug and cruel corporate executives who hold a contest to see who can bring the biggest idiot as a dinner guest. It's "Dogfight" with doofuses rather than homely women. It's obvious at the outset that before the film is over someone will learn a lesson about the nature of true idiocy.
The film's primary "schmuck" is Barry (played by Steve Carell), a nerdy IRS peon with a hobby of creating little dioramas populated by stuffed mice. Tim (Paul Rudd) is the step-climbing executive for whom human catastrophe Barry seems like a godsend. When Barry gets the date of the dinner wrong and shows up at Tim's home, he proceeds to accidentally tear Tim's life apart.
Carell plays the part broadly, but Barry is not just some Disney-fied misfit with a heart of gold. Barry enjoys mischief. When he accidentally invites one of Tim's sociopathic one-night stands (Lucy Punch) to Tim's apartment, Barry has a blast, even as violence and destruction ensues. In his helpful advice, he encourages Tim to think that Tim's longtime girlfriend (Stephanie Szostak) is having an affair with a self-centered hedonist artist (Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement) and gets to play spy as a result. Barry is never mean-spirited, but finds the chaos exciting.
Yet it's really not Carell's Barry who provides the best laughs. It's Rudd, whose straight-man reactions make Tim the character that the audience can relate to. And the side characters nail it: Zach Galifianakis, as Barry's mind-bending nemesis Therman; Clement, whose egomania is perversely benevolent; and minor characters, including two played by Larry Wilmore and Kristen Schaall.
When the climactic dinner finally comes and it's filled with all the "extraordinary people" (that's who they're told the dinner is for), it delivers both the wild humor and the promised lesson.
There was certainly the potential in the plot of "Dinner for Schmucks" for something more profound. Director Jay Roach ("Austin Powers," "Meet the Parents") and writers David Guion and Michael Handelman aren't out to make any larger or deeper points than you already knew before going into the theater. But like "The Hangover" and other recent comedies ("Role Models" and "Superbad" among them), "Schmucks" delivers just enough heart that the good feeling from the laughs lingers a little after its over.
© 2010, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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