Dinner for Schmucks * (2010, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Stephanie Szostak, Zach Galifianakis, Jemaine Clement, Lucy Punch, Bruce Greenwood, David Walliams, Ron Livingston) – Classic Movie Review 4616

A set of ill-judged performances ruins director Jay Roach’s all-too-broad, vaguely offensive 2010 comedy, with the main star Steve Carell’s awkward turn as a dumb schmuck being especially embarrassing, though the more appealing Paul Rudd gets by on being much lower key.

Rudd plays young mid-level financial analyst Tim Conrad, a rising executive who discovers that his boss Lance Fender (Bruce Greenwood) likes to play a cruel game with his work buddies in which they each bring a gullible fool to his monthly dinner party, a ‘dinner for idiots’. The winner is the one who brings the most idiotic guest and winning can help the victor rise in the company.

Tim has accidentally hit unhinged mouse lover and IRS employee Barry Speck (Carell) with his car as he was trying to retrieve a dead mouse in the road. So, when Tim is invited to his boss’s latest ‘dinner for winners’ party, he realises he has met the perfect schmuck for the occasion. Thus Tim finds himself having to spend an evening with his own perfect selected idiot, Barry, who of course then proceeds to ruin his life.

David Walliams plays wealthy Swiss businessman Martin Mueller, the man Tim finds a way to invite to become a client of his firm. Jemaine Clement plays eccentric artist Kieran Vollard and Stephanie Szostak plays Tim’s girlfriend Julie who lands a curator deal for Vollard.

Although there are a few laughs in the contrived farcical situations, this is a tatty, sad and dreary black farce, based on the 1998 French movie Le Diner de Cons by writer-director Francis Veber. The shaky screenplay is by David Guion and Michael Handelman, tweaking the original to make the character of Tim more sympathetic and show the dinner. Though the plot and most of the elements are the same, Roach says his film is inspired by the original rather than a remake.

Zach Galifianakis gives another unappealing performance as Therman Murch, and all also struggling desperately are Lucy Punch as Darla, Andrea Savage as Robin, P J Byrne as Davenport, Octavia Spencer as Madame Nora, Jeff Dunham as Lewis / Diane, Chris O’Dowd as Marco, Kristen Schaal as Susana, Patrick Fischler as Vincenzo and Ron Livingston as Caldwell.

The dinner scene is shot in the same location as the Wayne Manor in the Sixties Batman TV series.

Carell and Rudd previously teamed up for Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005).

Roach is the director of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), Mystery, Alaska (1999), Meet the Parents (2000), Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), Meet the Fockers (2004), Recount (2008) and Trumbo (2015).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4616

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