Dinner for Schmucks

When I was a teenager, lo those many years ago, I saw a French movie called “The Dinner Game” (I’m told the French translation is different). The movie is about a rich man has to find a buffoon to bring to a dinner in which the other guests are also bringing buffoons that they will all make fun of. In the film, the main guy meets his buffoon and due to a back injury is forced to remain in his company all day. He never gets to the dinner because before then he realizes the error of his ways and finally understands that the buffoon is a human being just like him. The movie was pretty funny, even if you have to read all of the jokes trough the subtitles. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that movie would be remade into an American version, but here we are.

“Dinner for Schmucks,” as it is so unfortunately named, is essentially the same story except this time they go to the climactic and ridiculous dinner. I have a very good hunch that this movie was called something else, perhaps something ironic like “Dinner for Winners” as it is called in the film, and someone at the studio underestimated the intelligence of the movie going public and changed it to the “Dinner for Schmucks,” one of the worst titles for a movie ever. They never even use the word schmuck one time in the entire movie. But I digress; this time around the film stars Paul Rudd as the rich guy and Steve Carrel as the buffoon. Both are extremely funny in these roles. The movie is pretty good much to my surprise. It is consistently funny and absurd all the way till the end. There were a couple jokes in particular that made me laugh more than anyone else in the theater, which was awkward. Some of the best parts come from Jemaine Clement from the band, The Flight of the Conchords, who plays a weird erotic egotistical artist.

I often think, what is the point of me writing this for you and you reading it? Is it to provide a film analysis and make you think about film as an art form? Or more likely, is it for me to tell you whether or not a movie is worth ten bucks and if you should see it? This movie is definitely the best comedy to come out all summer. This summer movie season has been one of the worst in history, making this year in cinema one of the worst ever. But as far as comedies go, this one is did it. The only barometer I use for comedies is if it made me laugh and this movie surely did that. If you have a choice between this and another comedy then this is a safe bet.