Just how much can go wrong in one day? That's the question director Frank Oz asks in his newest picture 'Death at a Funeral.'

Within the first few minutes of the movie, once the funeral home delivers the wrong body to Daniel (Matthew Macfayden), you know it's just going to be one of those days. Daniel is already nervous because he's delivering his father's eulogy, a fact everyone seems to question since his brother is a writer by profession.

As the family gathers to say goodbye to their patriarch, things just continue to get worse. Daniel's brother Robert (Rupert Graves) is a big name writer, who's basically abandoned the family for life in New York, and refuses to help pay for the funeral. Daniel's cousin Martha (Daisy Donovan) and her fiance Simon (The fantastic Alan Tudyk) are worried about what her father will say about Simon. Meanwhile Daniel's friends Howard (Andy Nyman) and Justin (Ewen Bremner) have their hands full with Daniel's Uncle Alfie and trying to win over Martha. And then things go down hill fast.

In order to help Simon relax Martha gives him a Valium she finds in her brother's apartment, not realizing that it's really LSD. Thus Simon spends the rest of the movie growing slowly crazier until he ends up naked. A stranger named Peter (Peter Dinklage) shows up with a secret about Daniel's father, that could tear the family apart. Peter further complicates things by blackmailing Daniel in order to keep quiet, but Daniel has other plans, which slowly comes to involve the entire ensemble, despite his best attempt.

As the funeral becomes a complete disaster and secrets are spilled a funny occurance brings the family closer together and helps heal old wounds.

The entire ensemble is great, but it's Tudyk and Dinklage that steal the show, which isn't hard as they have the craziest roles to play with. Tudyk proves once again how wonderful he can be in anything, and does a fantastic job acting high as a kite. Meanwhile Dinklage does what he always does and steals every scene he's in.

Bottom Line, Death at a Funeral is the funniest movie I've seen in quite sometime. The humor is definitely of the British mold, with the majority of the cast hailing from the UK, but it's also the kind of humor we can all relate to.

Special Features Include:
Commentary with Director Frank Oz
Commentary with Writer Dean Craig and Actors Alan Tudyk and Andy Nyman (And who doesn't want to hear more from Alan Tudyk about any topic)
And a hilarious Gag Reel

Death At A Funeral hits stores on February 26th.

Labels: book review, Death at a Funeral