Death at a Funeral (2007)

Image credit: Keith Hamshere

SUMMER MOURNING Dinklage takes the fun out of a funeral in Death's forced farce

A mysterious guest (Peter Dinklage) with a secret rattles an already dysfunctional clan at a memorial service for the family patriarch. (Perhaps in homage to the funnier The Wrong Box, undertakers first bring...the wrong box.) By the end of Death at a Funeral's effortful farce about busted British propriety, you may feel that peculiar facial ache that comes from wishing to laugh with no really satisfying release. Working with a broad script by Dean Craig, director Frank Oz goes for American-style physicality, marching his players around a country house in which a toilet, alas, plays a big part.