Death at a Funeral (***)

Family and friends come to a lovely house in the English countryside to mourn. Things start badly when the wrong body is delivered. The son of the deceased (Matthew MacFayden) worries that his eulogy will pale in comparison to the one his brother, a big-shot writer, could deliver. The niece worries about whether her crusty father will like her new fiancé. A family friend worries more about the rash on his arm. But this Frank Oz-directed farce ends up revolving around a small stranger (Peter Dinklage) and a pill bottle. There are one or two overfamiliar elements, like the cantankerous grandfather, but some orginality about the way they're handled. The plot requires undue carelessness surrounding the handling of both the pill bottle’s mislabeled contents and the mystery man. However, the characters are essentially believable, and one or two are colorful. There’s the odd bit of (literal) toilet humor but no fart jokes. Getting funnier as it goes along, this is a Funeral that most people should enjoy.

IMDB link

reviewed 8/30/07