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DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS Send This Review to a Friend
When a French film is bought for an American remake, you can pretty much count on it being turned into a broader, even gross, version that loses much of the original’s flavor.
The comedy “Dinner for Schmucks,” its title derived from a Yiddish word for a private part but designating a jerk, is a typical example. Although it basically follows the same storyline of men holding dinners in which an invited guest believes he is admired but is really chosen for being an especially stupid guy who can be made the butt of ridicule, the movie is of a piece with the sort of dumbed-down comedy being served these days.
The French import (find via Search), given the English title “The Dinner Game” instead of its French title “Le Diner de Cons,” thrives on farce, with the assembled cast being expert farceurs. It stems from a stage production and was written and directed by the astute Francis Veber, who did “La Cage Aux Folles.” The hilarity is derived from events before the dinner, but the dinner never occurs. In the American version, directed by Jay Roach and written By David Guion and Michael Handelman, the dinner takes place with all hell breaking loose.
To get a fix on what this film is like, all you have to know is that Steve Carell plays the supposed schmuck, Barry Speck. He can be quite funny, but his comedy is ultra broad. In the French version the target was a man whose hobby was building monuments like the Eiffel Tower out of matchsticks. With Carell’s Barry, his hobby is making miniature historical scenes with dead mice. Barry can drive anyone crazy, and the life he intrudes upon and turns into a shambles is that of Tim Conrad, played with exasperation by Paul Rudd. Tim, looking to ingratiate himself with his boss and move up the ladder, chooses Barry for the dinner object of ridicule.
Barry invites a sexually aggressive gal who has been after Tim to Tim’s apartment, thereby causing a mix-up with Tim’s girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak), leading Julie to rebel under the misapprehension that Tim is cheating. I won’t bore you with trying to explain all of the entanglements. Carell has moments when he is indeed funny, but far too much in the film is labored and the assembly of character actors piled on is sheer overweight, although I will say I enjoyed the ticks and comic hilarity supplied by Octavia Spencer n her brief role as a wacky medium.
As you might expect, there is a sentimental ending. The film lacks the fact pace and comic timing that contributed so artistically and hilariously to the French version. As a result, the comedy is geared as if potential audience members might also be populated by a generous helping of schmucks. But the producers may not be schmucks, as the title and Carell, in addition to a hunger for comedy, may draw audiences and become a moneymaker. And how many people even saw the French version? A Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks and Spyglass Entertainment release.
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