A movie that relies far too much on situational comedy and not nearly enough on clever writing.
- Who's going to like it: Fans of situational comedy, and those people who aren't quite sick of Steve Carell just yet.
Dinner for Schumucks wants
to make you laugh with sight gags and cringe-worthy situational comedy, instead
of making you laugh with clever writing. You see Tim (Paul Rudd) is looking to
get promoted. His boss has an inexplicable compulsion for throwing a dinner
where each employee brings the biggest idiot they can find, so they can make
fun of the people behind their backs. Except the joke is on them, because Barry
(Steve Carell) is impervious to ridicule. Barry is the perfect candidate for
idiot of the night, and is sure to land Tim in the coveted seventh floor corner
office, vacated by the last guy who didn’t perform well at the idiot dinner.
Get it? This is all about
increasingly awkward situations that the characters are put in as we watch them
writhe and squirm until we ourselves feel uncomfortable for them. Barry is a
taxidermist who specializes in creating dioramas of mice dressed as famous
people like the Wright Brothers and Benjamin Franklin. After Tim hits Barry
with his car, finds out he is quite the simpleton, Tim takes the opportunity to
invite Barry to the idiot dinner.
Meanwhile Tim is trying his
hardest to get his girlfriend to marry him, but she keeps saying no, although
she informs him that she still loves him very much.
Once Tim meets Barry his
life spins out of control, kind of like after Matthew Broderick met Jim Carrey
in The Cable Guy, only slightly less creepy. Barry invades Tim’s life, ruins
his relationships, threatens to ruin his job and promotion all because his mind
is living in simple-ville. Barry is the classic moron. He just doesn’t get it.
Doesn’t have a clue, doesn’t even begin to describe Barry.
Dinner for Schmucks is
full of clichéd misunderstandings that have characters hearing the wrong things
and the wrong times causing them to make ridiculous decisions. The entire film
hangs on the fact that no one acts like a real person would act. Everyone, even
the sane people, are nutso, but maybe that’s the point.
The film bounces from one
situation to another as the situations get increasingly uncomfortable to watch.
Barry thrusts himself into predicaments before he knows what he’s doing, and
all the audience can do is say, “Oh, that’s not going to end well.” Most of the
time watching Dinner for Schmucks is like watching a sitcom where everything
that can go wrong will go wrong, right before everything works out nice and
perfect.
It’s hard not to feel for
Barry, because he is just so stupid. It’s also hard not to feel for Tim because
he’s played by Paul Rudd who is one of the hardest people in Hollywood to
dislike. If you’ve grown tired of Steve Carell’s shtick by now, this film will
put you over the top.
Dinner for Schmucks has
its funny moments. Barry’s Tower of Dreamers speech is an instant classic, but
too much of it relies on situational humor and not enough on clever writing.
It’s like the difference between watching a hilarious stand-up comedian do his
act versus a clown at the circus squirting someone with a water-filled flower.
If you’re into situational comedy Dinner for Schmucks is for you. If you’re
hoping for a comedy with a little more meat on its bones, and a little more
cleverness in its writing then there’s nothing to see here. Just move along.
(2 1/2 out of 5)
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