Dinner for Schmucks

Based on a comedy by Francis Veber, Dinner for Schmucks follows up-and-coming executive Tim (Paul Rudd) as he agrees to participate in a dinner celebrating the idiocy of its guests – with problems ensuing as Tim’s pick, Steve Carell’s Barry, unknowingly begins to wreak havoc on his life. It’s a relatively workable premise that’s employed to underwhelming and sporadically infuriating effect by filmmaker Jay Roach, as the director, working from a screenplay by David Guion and Michael Handelman, places an all-too-consistent emphasis on elements of an unreasonably over-the-top nature – with this vibe most aptly reflected in the painfully broad work from co-stars Zach Galifianakis, Lucy Punch, and Jemaine Clement (ie Clement’s irritating turn as a pretentious artist is in itself reason enough to avoid this stinker). Even if one were willing to overlook the movie’s terminally unfunny atmosphere, Roach’s uncinematic and claustrophobic modus operandi – the entire thing seems to transpire primarily within one location – ensures that Dinner for Schmucks becomes an increasingly difficult and flat-out oppressive sit as it progresses (and this is to say nothing of Guion and Handelman’s obnoxious penchant for shoe-horning random instances of sentimentality into their aggressively bloated screenplay). By the time the expectedly larger-than-life (yet thoroughly unfunny) dinner rolls around, Dinner for Schmucks has certainly established itself as one of the most disastrous would-be comedies to come around in quite some time – which is a shame, really, given that Rudd and, to a lesser extent, Carell are both quite likeable here.

* out of ****