Death at a Funeral

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Death at a Funeral

Promotional poster for Death at a Funeral
Directed by Frank Oz
Written by Dean Craig
Starring Ewen Bremner
Peter Dinklage
Matthew Macfadyen
Kris Marshall
Alan Tudyk
Music by Murray Gold
Cinematography Oliver Curtis
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) August 17, 2007
Running time 90 min.
Country Germany
United States
(filmed in United Kingdom
Language English
IMDb profile

Death at a Funeral is a 2007 black comedy film directed by Frank Oz and written by Dean Craig. The film, released in North America on August 17, 2007, stars Matthew Macfadyen, Rupert Graves, Alan Tudyk and Peter Dinklage. It was released in Australia on October 11, 2007 and went on to become one of the year's biggest success stories making over $14 million, remaining in the top 20 for 16 weeks. It was number one at the Australian box office in its second, fourth, and fifth weeks, and rarely dropped more than 20% from week-to-week. In its third week, however, even though it slipped to second place (due to the debut of Saw IV) it increased its box office from the week before. The movie's box office also increased the following week.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Members of a dysfunctional family arrive at the funeral of their deceased father, each with his or her own anxieties. Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen) knows he will have to face his famous novelist brother Robert (Rupert Graves) from New York, while attempting to fulfill his promises of a new life to his wife Jane (Keeley Hawes).

Meanwhile, Daniel's cousin Martha (Daisy Donovan) and her fiancé Simon (Alan Tudyk) are desperate to make a good impression on Martha's uptight father -- a plan that literally goes out the window when Simon ingests a designer hallucinogenic drug en route to the service, accidentally supplied by Martha's brother Troy, leaving him prone to uncontrollable bouts of delirium and nudity in front of his potential in-laws. Also, a mysterious guest (Peter Dinklage) arrives and threatens to unveil the fact that he was the father's former lover. The two brothers attempt to prevent him from doing so, a plan that goes horrendously wrong, with virtually every attempt at solving the problem leading to a worse problem. Before long, total chaos reigns, although the brothers eventually bring the situation under control at the end of the film.

[edit] Full synopsis

Daniel intends to buy himself and his wife a flat and start a new life. Normally, this would not have been a problem but as his father has died, and he is forced to take a large chunk of money from his savings to pay for a funeral.

Meanwhile Troy, a pharmacological student, has mixed up a designer recreational drug (mainly composed of acid), in the form of pills, which he hides in a Valium bottle. Martha gives Simon one of these in the belief that they are Valium. He begins to hallucinate and make comments upon obvious characteristics of things, such as, in a garden: "It's very green here, isn't it?".

At the funeral, waiting for Howard to bring Uncle Alfie, Daniel worries about the flat. It turns out he could still have afforded the flat had his brother Robert not flown in first class from New York, as he spent a huge amount of money on a plane ticket and not had enough left to help pay for the funeral. He struggles to write an appropriate eulogy for his father. Daniel also notices Peter, a dwarf, who is unknown to anyone at the funeral.

At the first attempt at a funeral service, Simon is obsessed by the idea that he can hear scratching noises on the inside of the coffin. He tips it over so that the body rolls out at the feet of its former wife, who, along with most of the other guests, burst into tears. While the crisis is being dealt with, Martha drags Simon outside, where her father attempts to forbid her from marrying him. Troy realises Simon is under the effects of one of his pills from the Valium bottle (which he then accidentally drops). Simon, now realising what has happened to him, locks himself in the upstairs bathroom and tries (unsuccessfully) to fight the hallucinations, eventually climbing out of the window, naked.

Peter, taking the brothers to the study, tries to blackmail Daniel and Robert by threatening to tell everyone he has had a homosexual relationship with their dead father (he has explicit photographs which prove it). For £15,000, he will destroy the photographs and leave, never again to interfere in the lives of anyone present at the funeral.

Justin tries to rekindle a one night stand he had with Martha, though she cleary does not return his feelings. Simon sees Justin kiss Martha, though without her permission. Simon then becomes depressed, sits on the roof, and threatens to jump until Martha tells him she is pregnant with his child.

Meanwhile, Robert has tackled Peter and Daniel has tied him up with curtain rope. Howard enters the study and gives Peter five pills from the Valium bottle, thinking he is having a seizure. Troy hides Peter behind a sofa as Uncle Alfie comes into the study to use the adjoining toilet, with the help of Howard. Meanwhile Peter becomes hyperactive and jumps repeatedly on the sofa, before falling and smashing a glass coffee table with his head. Unresponsive as he is, the four pronounce him dead and think of ways to get rid of the body, but not before it is spotted by Uncle Alfie.

They try to bury the body with their father in his coffin but fail as he wakes up, knocks on the inside of coffin, manages to open it, and upsets the funeral again, and is then dragged out of the room. The compromising photographs fall out of Peter's pocket and Sandra (the wife of the deceased) sees them. She then attacks Peter, who is still tied up. Daniel demands everyone stay calm and shouts that his father did certain things that may be looked down upon as immoral but that it is not how or that he did them, it is why that counts; life is complicated and this is reflected in his funeral - thus giving his father the eulogy he was unable to write earlier. After the funeral the brothers are able to put aside their differences.

Uncle Alfie complains about the dead body in the study repeatedly, but nobody pays any attention, presuming that he is becoming senile. Jane says that it is best he stay the night, as she has given him some Valium and put him to bed. At that point, he is sitting naked on the roof, shouting: "Everything's so fucking green!".

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Frank Oz

The Dark Crystal (1982) • The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) • Little Shop of Horrors (1986) • Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) • What About Bob? (1991) • HouseSitter (1992) • The Indian in the Cupboard (1995) • In & Out (1997) • Bowfinger (1999) • The Score (2001) • The Stepford Wives (2004) • Death at a Funeral (2007)