Dinner for Schmucks, a reworking of Francis Veber's original French tale Le Diner de Cons, follows Tim Conrad (Paul Rudd), an ambitious analyst at a private equity firm who is on the verge of moving up the corporate ranks. He's equally persistent in trying to get his longtime girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak) to accept his marriage proposal. An opportunity for professional advancement presents itself when Tim is asked by the boss of the company, Lance Fender (Bruce Greenwood), to attend his forthcoming monthly dinner at his mansion. But what makes this dinner special is who the attendees are required to bring as their guests.
Fender and his top execs (including Ron Livingston and Larry Wilmore) bring extraordinary guests with them to these dinners, unique individuals whose charming traits make them ... ripe for ridicule. The point is to bring the biggest, most oblivious idiot savant you can find and whichever employee's guest is deemed the most spectacularly offbeat buffoon "wins." Tim is initially appalled at the very idea of this dinner, but secretly decides to attend it in order to gain favor with Fender.
Tim literally runs into the perfect dinner guest: Barry Speck (Steve Carell), a divorced IRS employee and amateur taxidermist whose passion is to turn dead mice into recreations of various famous works of art or historical events -- his "mouseterpieces." The sweet-natured and optimistic Barry is clueless as to Tim's true motives, instead thinking they've simply become fast friends. Tim's conscience gnaws at him, but it becomes easier for him to use Barry after the fool makes his life hell in no time. This big dinner will prove one to remember, but who just might be deemed the bigger schmuck -- Tim or Barry?
Boasting a stellar supporting roster of comedic players -- including Zach Galifianakis, Jemaine Clement, David Walliams, Lucy Punch, Octavia Spencer and Chris O'Dowd -- Dinner for Schmucks turns out to be far funnier and more endearing than its painfully bad trailers would have you believe. It's got plenty of zany laughs and a lot of heart, but it's also never as cutting or as dark as its premise would suggest. It's the safest mean-spirited comedy you'll ever see.
It's a testament to Rudd and Carell's talents and chemistry together that we remain invested in characters who are, respectively, self-centered and too blissfully ignorant to be true, and neither of whom is especially well-developed. It's a one-note premise, but the leads work overtime to try and make us care about these guys and, once we do, buy into the farcical shenanigans that follow. Galifianakis and Clement have the showier and more outright funny roles, but Rudd and Carell do all the heavy lifting here.
The thing that makes Schmucks distinctive and interesting is the film's tone, something that the trailers couldn't capture or sell. From the opening credits sequence set to the Beatles' "The Fool on the Hill" (which plays over a tableaux of Barry's mousterpieces), we're aware that as wacky as the film may get there is still a human core to it. But the film, directed by Austin Powers's Jay Roach, is also trying to have things both ways. It wants us to laugh at Barry and his fellow idiots, but also to respect them as people, too. It's a fine line to walk, and the film doesn't always maintain its balance.
Dinner for Schmucks has enough laughs to warrant a look-see, but it's too concerned with trying not to really insult anybody to remain consistently funny or to develop the characters and plot beyond its skit-like premise. Overall, this Dinner was a satisfactory meal, but not quite the comedic feast that it might have been had it possessed some spicier ingredients.
Fender and his top execs (including Ron Livingston and Larry Wilmore) bring extraordinary guests with them to these dinners, unique individuals whose charming traits make them ... ripe for ridicule. The point is to bring the biggest, most oblivious idiot savant you can find and whichever employee's guest is deemed the most spectacularly offbeat buffoon "wins." Tim is initially appalled at the very idea of this dinner, but secretly decides to attend it in order to gain favor with Fender.
Tim literally runs into the perfect dinner guest: Barry Speck (Steve Carell), a divorced IRS employee and amateur taxidermist whose passion is to turn dead mice into recreations of various famous works of art or historical events -- his "mouseterpieces." The sweet-natured and optimistic Barry is clueless as to Tim's true motives, instead thinking they've simply become fast friends. Tim's conscience gnaws at him, but it becomes easier for him to use Barry after the fool makes his life hell in no time. This big dinner will prove one to remember, but who just might be deemed the bigger schmuck -- Tim or Barry?
Boasting a stellar supporting roster of comedic players -- including Zach Galifianakis, Jemaine Clement, David Walliams, Lucy Punch, Octavia Spencer and Chris O'Dowd -- Dinner for Schmucks turns out to be far funnier and more endearing than its painfully bad trailers would have you believe. It's got plenty of zany laughs and a lot of heart, but it's also never as cutting or as dark as its premise would suggest. It's the safest mean-spirited comedy you'll ever see.
It's a testament to Rudd and Carell's talents and chemistry together that we remain invested in characters who are, respectively, self-centered and too blissfully ignorant to be true, and neither of whom is especially well-developed. It's a one-note premise, but the leads work overtime to try and make us care about these guys and, once we do, buy into the farcical shenanigans that follow. Galifianakis and Clement have the showier and more outright funny roles, but Rudd and Carell do all the heavy lifting here.
The thing that makes Schmucks distinctive and interesting is the film's tone, something that the trailers couldn't capture or sell. From the opening credits sequence set to the Beatles' "The Fool on the Hill" (which plays over a tableaux of Barry's mousterpieces), we're aware that as wacky as the film may get there is still a human core to it. But the film, directed by Austin Powers's Jay Roach, is also trying to have things both ways. It wants us to laugh at Barry and his fellow idiots, but also to respect them as people, too. It's a fine line to walk, and the film doesn't always maintain its balance.
Dinner for Schmucks has enough laughs to warrant a look-see, but it's too concerned with trying not to really insult anybody to remain consistently funny or to develop the characters and plot beyond its skit-like premise. Overall, this Dinner was a satisfactory meal, but not quite the comedic feast that it might have been had it possessed some spicier ingredients.
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