Cinefile

Ron Livingston (Office Space) and Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) need to star in a good comedy together. Livingston is a sort of jaded John Cusack, an “everyman” who has an infectious, deadpan insight into whatever shit situation he lands in. Galifianakis, on the other hand, is a sort of juvenile John Belushi, if you can imagine such a thing. He has the size and brutish swagger that’s key to Belushi’s screen presence but is restrained by his own wide-eyed, childlike fascination with everything he comes in contact with. The fact that I pondered the traits of these comedic actors, who are only peripheral players in Jay Roach’s remake of Dinner For Schmucks, just shows you how tuned out I was during stretches of this new film. That’s never a good sign.

Paul Rudd (Clueless) stars as Tim, a mild mannered account manager for a big firm headed by the cool-headed Lance Fender (Bruce Greenwood). Through a chance encounter with a promising & rich foreign investor, Tim (Rudd) finds himself on the heels of a big promotion. But of course, as with any jovial corporate setting, he’s going to have to impress his boss and the other smug execs by participating in a cruel out-of-the-office soiree. On occasion, Fender hosts these dinner parties that take place in what looks like the castle from Jan De Bont’s The Haunting. Here’s the hook: in order to attend these parties you have to bring an unsuspecting “schmuck” so that everyone could mock them with their eyes and unspoken sentiments. Sounds like a hoot.

First of all, the title of the movie is misleading. It should be called Dealing With Schmucks. The actual dinner party is only a small fraction of the film’s running time. Instead, the audience is forced to sit through a series of uncomfortable and generally unfunny gags involving Tim trying to control his chosen schmuck Barry (Steve Carell) before the pivotal dinner party. The strange irony is that Carell is the strongest and weakest link to this film. As Barry, a quirky mouse taxidermist/hobbyist, Carell makes his Brick Tamland from Anchorman look like Albert Einstein. Barry is so incredibly aloof and dangerous that he manages to seriously sabotage Tim’s probable engagement to his beau Julie (Stephanie Szostak)—while also involving the poor guy in a breaking and entering scenario and reintroducing an obsessive one night stand vixen from years prior. In other words, we want to strangle Barry.

And yet—largely due to Carell’s history as an improv comic artist—Barry reveals moments of sincere loneliness with just his eyes. Who knows if these quick injections of pain were written? Carell is a smart actor who must have found something worth saving in Barry. So when shades of Barry’s personal back-story begin to surface, Carell does some thankless work in the nuances—particularly in the devoted looks he gives to whoever is addressing him—that slip between all the wild physical antics. Yet that’s not enough to really save or elevate this film.

So what do we have with Dinner For Schmucks? A misshapen, sometimes funny (Flight of the Concords’ Jermaine Clement continues on a streak of scene-stealing roles) train wreck that may one day resurface as an overlooked gem. As for now, Roach’s latest film may say it’s a comedy dreamer...but it’s not.