{"id":3312,"date":"2010-04-20T12:41:16","date_gmt":"2010-04-20T18:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=3312"},"modified":"2010-04-20T12:41:16","modified_gmt":"2010-04-20T18:41:16","slug":"movie-review-death-at-a-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=3312","title":{"rendered":"Movie review: Death at a Funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top Comics Make ‘Death at A\u00a0Funeral’ A Guilty Pleasure<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Maggie Scott<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019d think that the gravity and decorum of a funeral would put people on their best behavior.\u00a0 But, like that other great milestone in life at which family, friends and business acquaintances gather-\u2014a wedding\u2014such may not always be the case.<\/p>\n

Particularly under the strain of sorrow, guilt and regret, grieving family members can forget themselves and turn a somber occasion into an opportunity to make hilarious fools of themselves, feeling the urgency of mortality and unrequited desires and the weight of past wrongs and inadequacies.\u00a0 Mining these rich possibilities for indecorous impropriety is director Neil LaBute\u2019s remake of the 2007 British comedy, Death at a Funeral<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Not just any American remake, but an American remake from an African-American perspective. As written by Dean Craig, closely adhering to the source material, three of the characters who gather at a home-based wake for a family patriarch ultimately come off as mannequins clothed in the personalities of some of the most popular African-American comedians of the era: Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, and Tracy Morgan.\u00a0 Which is not to say that the proceedings disintegrate into a free-for-all of ethnic subversiveness.<\/p>\n

To this reviewer, who saw the original movie, it appears that LaBute has managed to transplant a bit of the British reserve so cleverly subverted by the manic pickle a son faces when he learns his late father led a secret life and it literally comes bursting out of the dead man\u2019s coffin.<\/p>\n

The transplant is most apparent in the way in which Chris Rock as Aaron Barnes attempts to retain a dignified front in the face of spouses, relatives and friends who start making the gathering a forum for airing their issues.\u00a0 Aaron\u2019s wife (Regina Hall) wants to get pregnant and move out of her in-laws\u2019 house.\u00a0 Aaron\u2019s brother (Lawrence) wants to lord it over Aaron that he\u2019s not only the favorite son of their mother (Loretta Devine), but he\u2019s the famous writer Aaron (who\u2019s trying to come up with a eulogy) would like to be. Their cousin Elaine (Zoe Saldana) is riding herd on her Caucasian boyfriend (James Marsden), determined to change her father\u2019s mind about him, and trying to evade her hang-dog-looking ex (Luke Wilson).\u00a0 The boyfriend is trying to win over his potential relatives, but doesn\u2019t exactly make a sterling impression, when he accidentally ingests an hallucinogenic drug.<\/p>\n

Adding to Aaron\u2019s aggravations is a friend (Morgan) convinced his rash is fatal; an uncle (Danny Glover), with an irritable bowel, vociferously exasperated by the foolishness around him; and a mysterious small man no one seems to know who keeps staring at Aaron most discomfortingly.\u00a0 Frank (Peter Dinklage) doesn\u2019t appear to be interested in paying his respects, but is very interested in getting Aaron to pay him to keep his mouth shut about the special friendship he had with Aaron\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

All Aaron wants to do is honor the memory of his father\u2014\u201can exceptional man.\u201d But, until then, there are going to be some exceptionally lively moments before the dearly departed can finally be the center of attention\u2014without shocking the guests.<\/p>\n

This slap-happy guilty pleasure is one remake that does the original proud.\u00a0 It\u2019s your funeral if you miss it.\u00a0 A Screen Gems picture, rated R for language, drug content, sexual humor and nudity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top Comics Make ‘Death at A\u00a0Funeral’ A Guilty Pleasure By Maggie Scott You\u2019d think that the gravity and decorum of a funeral would put people on their best behavior.\u00a0 But, like that other great milestone in life at which family, friends and business acquaintances gather-\u2014a wedding\u2014such may not always be the case. Particularly under the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment-travel","category-movie-reviews","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nMovie review: Death at a Funeral - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=3312\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Movie review: Death at a Funeral - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Top Comics Make ‘Death at A\u00a0Funeral’ A Guilty Pleasure By Maggie Scott You\u2019d think that the gravity and decorum of a funeral would put people on their best behavior.\u00a0 But, like that other great milestone in life at which family, friends and business acquaintances gather-\u2014a wedding\u2014such may not always be the case. 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