Wick's Review

Summary - Great 4.0

Steve Carell channels Jerry Lewis in this very funny comedy of manners. Mean on its face, it’s also cloyingly sweet on occasion, yet its mostly unerring humor slays all objections. Indeed the LOLs are never more than a few minutes away, especially when the “idiots” get untracked.

Yes “idiots.” Dinner for Schmucks never uses “schmuck.” Not once, schmuck.

The movie is executed with such high spirits and Carell bring such panache to his oddly upbeat character, that it all seems harmless. Maybe that’s because mean comedy has been with us for a long time now, so debasement has lost its revolting sting. In any case, Steve Carell – who entered the priesthood of Debasement Comedy¹ with The 40 Year Old Virgin – enters the pantheon with his performance here.

Paul Rudd, the reluctant bro in this oddball bromance, plays Dean Martin to Carell’s Jerry Lewis, his mild unctuousness anchoring their partnership. Fortunately, neither Rudd or Carell comes on nearly as strong as Martin or Lewis, a good thing for those of us who never joined the French in their appreciation of Jerry Lewis’s idiotic comedy.

The manners of contemporary white collar work are the fodder for much of the humor, not only for Rudd’s junior executive character but also for Carell’s IRS functionary. Each of their workplace relationships gets fed into the mill: Rudd’s with his secretary-on-the-make, his asshole superiors and his spineless peers; Carell’s with his insane boss (played by the brilliantly hilarious Zach Galifianakis), a manager who is way too involved in the deeply personal life of his subordinate.

Interestingly, the movie includes minimal physical and slapstick comedy for such a purely comic creation. Instead many physical laughs are generated by an increasingly hilarious series of stuffed mouse dioramas. Easily as funny as Carell or Galifianakis, these mousey doppelgängers spoof art, literature, relationships and society in general. Brilliant and LOL.

Thus Dinner for Schmucks serves up mostly smart comedy in search of silly laughs. Happily what it searches for, it finds.

¹ Ben Stiller being the High Priest

Acting - Great 4.0

All hail Steve Carell and Zach Galifianakis, comic geniuses. Their mind control duel at the dinner is side-stitch funny.

Paul Rudd delivers one of his patented boyfriend-buddy roles. His harmless charm works here just as it did in I Love You, Man. Ever the earnest boyfriend, he’s also the classic put-upon buddy and immoral professional.

Other notables:

• Bruce Greenwood dresses up any movie with his effortless charisma and sonorous baritone.
• Jemaine Clement’s rock-star-like artist injects one of many veins of thoughtful whimsy into the proceedings.
• Stephanie Szostak’s luscious and lovely girlfriend suggest this starlet has a bright future.

Film - Great 4.0

Director Jay Roach aims both low and high in his films, hitting more than he misses at each level. From Austin Powers to Meet the Parents to Mystery, Alaska and now to Dinner for Schmucks, the guy is as close to a lock as you’ll ever find in the high risk business of creating comedies that work.

It makes sense that Dinner for Schmucks remakes a French movie given their reverence for Jerry Lewis. While Schmucks isn’t nearly as idiotic as Lewis was, its debt is clear.

Edge - Tame 1.4

Reality - Glib 1.8

Two reality questions get begged by the movie.

• Is it OK to laugh at idiots? Yes, so long as they are idiosyncratic fools rather than the mentally challenged. In that sense, the title’s use of “schmucks” instead of “idiots” is accurate in that a schmuck is more foolish than disabled. In any case, this is easier to control in the highly produced artifice of a movie. So as the saying goes, don’t try it at home.
• Does Hollywood understand business? No. The movie hews to the Left-wing trope that business is about zero sum rapaciousness executed by willful cheating. It’s often said that Hollywood deal-making follows that model, so maybe they’re just projecting.

1 Comment

• Wick Aug 7, 2010 5:13PM

  Regarding Spaceghost’s Review
  Wow, Ghost. Great review and entirely believable. The trailer had me in stitches, so I intended to see the flik. Then the dreaded professional reviewers gave me too much pause, so I crossed it off my list. Instead, I watched Back to School last night, which was mildly fun but nothing like seeing a fresh, first rate comedy in the theater.

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