Dinner for Schmucks

my first thoughts of this film is that it was an absurdist comedy. Not the sort of film you would consider seeing coming out of mainstream Hollywood.

Steve Carrell plays Barry a strange freak with a heart of gold, he is befriended by Paul Rudds character Tim, who needs to find a "schmuck" to bring to a grotesque dinner party that his powerful work colleagues regularly hold - the winner is the colleague who brings the biggest schmuck. This is based on a french film by the name of The Dinner Game, but apparently is no where near as cruel in its depiction of it's Schmuck, indeed Barry could just suffer from a form of autism.

To me the film is a collection of gags and strange characters that wouldn't seem out of place in a sketch show, and that's about as cohesive as the scenes get. the film lurches from one sketch to another, albeit very funny, but they are with the same characters, and they do start to get tiresome. The characters are so , strange an so surreal that it seems impossible that they could live in such a normal world as the rest f the characters live - which is fine in a sketch show, but with the fleshing out of all the characters and situations it seems to clash and pulls you out of the film.

so in all in all a collection of funny characters and sketches but struggles as a coherent film.

2 stars