Death at a Funeral Image
  • Starring: Ewen Bremner, Matthew MacFadyen, Peter Dinklage
  • Summary: On the morning of their father's funeral, the family and friends of the deceased each arrive with his or her own roiling anxieties. Son Daniel knows he will have to face his flirty, blow-hard, famous-novelist brother, Robert, who's just flown in from New York, not to mention the promises of a new life he's made to his wife Jane. Meanwhile, Daniel's cousin Martha and her dependable new fiancé Simon are desperate to make a good impression on Martha's uptight father--a plan that literally goes out the window when Simon accidentally ingests a designer drug en rout to the service. Then there's the mysterious guest who threatens to unveil an earth-shattering family secret. As mayhem and unfortunate mishaps ensue on every front, it is up to the two brothers to hide the truth from their family and friends and figure out how to not only bury their dearly beloved, but the secret he's been keeping. (MGM) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 30
  2. Negative: 0 out of 30
  1. The humor manages to be simultaneously sophisticated, supremely silly and very dark.
  2. Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    90
    Insanely funny, if occasionally out-of-control, black farce.
  3. Reviewed by: James Dyer
    60
    A sole potty joke is unnecessarily crass, but for the most part this is joyfully funny.

See all 30 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 40
  2. Negative: 11 out of 40
  1. MikeH
    10
    Get's better and better every time you watch it!
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. AndyQ
    5
    I went to this movie after hearing the good reviews, but I was worried by the overlong opening credits and that initial unease wasn't lifted. If it was to be farce and slapstick, I wanted them to go all the way; instead, the recycled and over-familiar jokes lacked life. Mistaken pill-taking? Funnier in Six Feet Under. Wacky zealous suitor that doesn't get the hint. See any sitcom. Graphic fecal matter. Way better in trainspotting. Crotchety old uncle. Sibling rivalry. Bumbling upper crust Englishmen. A stirring eulogy. Actually, I can't think of anything original. I did think the cast was likable, and Alan Tudyk's performance saved the film for me. But one last thing: it's not enough to have a secret gay lover? Now it has to be a secret midget gay lover? Please. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. RichardC.
    2
    Did these critics see the same film I saw? Are they so disenchanted with American cinema that they will fool themselves into thinking this crud is "hilarious" and "outrageous"? I was appalled to be sitting in a screening with strangers who were guffawing at this decidedly low-brow humour. I agree with what another user wrote - I am all for Farrelly Bros.-type comedy if it's billed as such - but I can't abide this unquestioning Anglophilia that gives dreck like this a passing grade just because the actors don't sound like us. At times, I thought I was trapped at home on a Saturday night in mid-winter, grazing on those execrable PBS Britcoms that make up-state NY bourgeoisie feel superior to their neighbours. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 40 User Reviews