What Do The Critics Say?

"When one of the slamming doors is a coffin lid, you know you're in a proper farce. Death at a Funeral features a naked jumper, an incontinent gramps and a grifter dwarf, mixed in with a generous assortment of classic English types who supply delightfully absurd subplots involving hallucinogens, unrequited lust and sibling rivalries. All this daft business roughly unfolds in uproarious real time, a crisp and clever hour and a half that, like the best screwball comedies, barely pauses for laughs." Rex Roberts FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL "Frank Oz directs this British farce, which was written by Dean Craig. The ensemble cast does a bang-up job with the comedy bits, a succession of shocks and surprises which interrupt the somber state of the funeral. Adding to the tension in the country mansion is the impatience of an over-booked minister who can't wait to move on to his next appointment." Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat SPIRITUALITY AND PRACTICE "It’s comedy in the good old-fashioned sense: pure farce served straight up. Smartly conceived and executed, the jokes arrive with some cheap shots, but Oz (and Dean Craig’s script) takes everything one step further. And just when you think things can’t quite get any crazier, they do. Though everyone’s problems get resolved too easily, it’s a fun ride nonetheless. And it’s clear that Oz still has plenty of comedic venom to go around." Toddy Burton THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE "There's no time to catch your breath; Death at a Funeral is that funny." Marcy Dermansky ABOUT.COM "It’s an ensemble comedy that’s stronger in exaggerated situational humor than its eccentric yet one-dimensional characterizations. Best remembered as dashing Mr. Darcy opposite Keira Knightly in “Pride and Prejudice,” Matthew Macfadyen transforms into diligently dowdy here. On the Granger Movie Gauge, "Death at a Funeral" is a silly, screwball 7/10. For those who enjoy droll British humor." Susan Granger SUSANGRANGER.COM

"While the laughs are consistent, the sentiment never quite strikes close to the heart. "Death" is above-all a farce and remains that way to the bitter end. And what happens will keep you guessing until dear old Dad is finally laid to rest. It might be too much to ask that the film also reveal some deeper meaning. Managing to keep the laughs coming at a frenzied pace, Oz takes Dean Craig’s zippy screenplay firmly under the control of a directing master. The tone of the film is constantly off-beat enough to make the ridiculous happenings somewhat credible, making the belly laughs very deep. And with a cast this big, the production required someone like Oz to pull it together. He did. The result is the best British comedy in years." Jonathan W Hickman ENTERTAINMENT INSIDERS "A fast, furious and riotously funny british farce in the tradition of Monty Python and Peter Sellers. It just may kill you with laughs, which seems to be all this amiable, off-the-wall comedy has on its agenda." Pete Hammond MAXIM "Funerals can be fun is the point made by this British comedy, a Feydeau-like farce brimming with brio, one that travels beautifully across the Atlantic. Harvey S Karten COMPUSERVE "Insanely funny, if occasionally out-of-control, black farce. With Death at a Funeral, it's particularly and perversely pleasurable to see actual grownups defying modern movie demographics and falling about as if they were a bunch of moonstruck children." Richard Schickel TIME MAGAZINE "Death at a Funeral may be the funniest movie ever set in such a deadly serious setting. Though we've seen countless actors approximating hallucinations in movies, Tudyk does one of the funniest altered-state performances in recent memory. And when it comes to skeletons in the closet, these revelations emerge in particularly droll style. Curmudgeonly Uncle Alfie is unnerved about being away from his retirement home and not in full control of his bodily functions. Director Frank Oz ("In & Out") assembled a largely British cast of talented character actors, each of whom contributes to transforming an ostensibly sedate occasion into pandemonium." Claudia Puig USA TODAY

The Inside Story With "Death At A Funeral", Frank Oz returns to his roots with an ensemble comedy in which each and every character brings his or her own mordantly funny comic twist. The title itself reveals the story’s satirical set-up, but as the film explores both family rites and family wrongs, it is the way in which Daniel and Martha (the son and nephew of the deceased) find their way through the unruly funeral's shocks and revelations, that makes the film not only hilarious but heartfelt. It was the screenplay by rising young British writer Dean Craig; a bold, refreshingly contemporary, no-holds-barred take on the traditional British farce, that first grabbed Oz’s attention. "This was that very rare script where you really laugh out loud, and that’s the acid test," says Oz. "When I found out how young Dean Craig is I was truly surprised because he has the instincts of a classic craftsman. The structure is rooted in farce, but has its own youthful intelligence and sense of humor. It was so funny, I really couldn’t say no." "The combination of Dean Craig’s hilarious characters and situations with Frank Oz’s sophisticated comedic instincts was destined to create something quite unique," says William Horberg, President of Production at Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, who stepped forward in the early stages to put the film into production. Producer Larry Malkin, who along with Horberg, Share Stallings and Diane Philips took the project from script to screen, recalls the thrill of Oz’s initial reaction. "We were very thankful he said yes. In the first conversations we had with Frank, he talked about how "Death At A Funeral" is very British but it’s also very universal with characters and family complications to which everyone can relate, and from that moment forward, that idea has guided almost every decision on this film," Malkin notes. "Frank took the material and truly ran with it. It became a delightful modern farce about those moments when life goes completely awry and mayhem ensues but there is also reconciliation." "It’s the heightening desperation of things that makes the story so funny," observes Oz. "Everybody at the funeral wants something in their own lives and the way all their wants get intermingled and bump up against one another creates a situation filled with comic possibilities." Screenwriter Dean Craig confessed that he didn’t even set out to write a farce at first. The inspiration for the film came to Craig, not surprisingly, while he himself was at a trouble-prone funeral. "It was my grandfather’s funeral a few years ago," Craig explained. "It was a very somber and difficult event, but with inappropriate things happening. It was all so incongruous that it got me thinking that this actually could be quite an interesting setting for a black comedy. I was also thinking about that powerful feeling at funerals that, while everything is centered around a death, there is also this over-riding sense that life goes on. So I created characters who, even in the midst of the funeral, are very obsessed with the paths of their own lives. I was just writing what came naturally." "What we loved about the script is that it’s definitely in the tradition of great farce movies like Arsenic and Old Lace and Ladykillers, but it’s also clearly written by a young man," says producer Share Stalling. "It springs from those fantastic roots but it’s feels very new and modern. There are very few scripts like this one." Director Frank Oz knew the key to getting the right tone would lie in putting together a group of smart, witty, talented actors capable of taking their characters to both emotional depths and comedic extremes. He was very pleased with the final casting. "These aren’t just great actors," says Oz, "they are great actors who are absolutely right for these particular parts. Every single one of them is fantastic in their own way." To play the central character Daniel, the filmmakers chose one of today’s fastest rising British stars, Matthew Macfadyen. "Daniel is a great part and very different from anything I’ve done," he says. "The script was so funny and unpredictable, I’d never laughed so hard before. It was a hoot playing Daniel, and hopefully it’ll be a real hoot for audiences to watch him go through this unbelievable day as well." Rupert Graves was cast as Daniel's blow-hard author brother, Robert, who flies in from New York at the very last minute for the funeral. "Funeral's are incredibly volatile, emotional situations, and that’s why I think they’re a natural breeding ground for comedy as well. This story takes that reality to a very funny extreme. It’s a classic English comedy but pushed to further limits than has been done in the past," Graves notes. American actor Alan Tudyk was cast as the straight-laced fiancé of cousin Martha. "For the first few minutes of the film, Simon is a very uptight, buttoned-down guy, and then proceeds to spend the rest of the story entirely out of his mind on drugs. It’s a great laugh," he says. Martha is Daisy Donovan, an accomplished British comedic actress who was recently seen in Danny Boyle’s critically acclaimed "Millions". Donovan adored her character, but admits "She's got issues. Her fiance’s not well liked by her father and then there’s the slight problem of him being a bit on drugs in the middle of a funeral. Martha’s just trying to contain the situation but Simon’s like a bomb waiting to go off." So did the cast manage to keep a straight face? Donovan revealed "We did have a problem with laughter, that is not being able to contain it at certain moments." Another character who has resounding impact on the proceedings is Peter, the taciturn mystery guest who suddenly unleashes secrets, blackmail and desperate cover-ups behind the scenes of the funeral. That role went to actor Peter Dinklage (Elf"). "The beauty of this role is that you see me on the periphery for quite awhile as the mystery starts to develop of who I really am and why I’m really there. Then comes the big revelation and it sets an outrageous series of events in motion," he says. "The script had me in hysterics." Renowned English actor Peter Vaughn was cast as the obstreperous Uncle Alfie. Vaughan fell in love with Uncle Alfie. "He’s really on the wild side, a bit on the mad side, which is a great straight part for me," he said with a laugh. "I don’t think of it as British because it’s a story that could happen anywhere. Part of the real beauty of the story is that it’s a comedy but it has several layers of truth, heightened truth, but truth nonetheless." Scottish actor Ewen Bremner ("Trainspotting" & "Match Point") was cast as Justin. "Justin is good fun to play because he’s really quite a bit of an idiot. Yet he’s a different kind of idiot than any I’ve played before! He’s selfish, vain, arrogant and pretty much disdainful of the entire human race," says Bremner. Meet The Director - Frank Oz Frank Oz was born Richard Frank Oznowicz on May 25th 1944 in Hereford, England to parents Frances and Isidore Oznowicz, both of whom were puppeteers. After relocating to Belgium, the family moved to California when Oz was five. By the age of twelve, he was performing with his family at a local amusement park. Interestingly, he stated in an interview that he did not share his family’s love for puppeteering, but became involved with it to please them and to overcome his own shyness. He graduated from California's Oakland City College during 1962. Fate decreed he would meet Jim Henson at a Puppeteers of America convention in California. He was blown away by Henson’s creations (the then unknown Muppets) and by the age of 19, was working as part of Henson’s company, Muppets Inc in 1963. He was part of the first-season cast of Saturday Night Live as the Mighty Favag and appeared in "The Blues Brothers" with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. After "The Muppet Show" went on the air in 1976, Oz became vice president of the Henson organization, and was responsible for the portrayals of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Animal, among other characters, earning three Daytime EMMY Awards (1974, '76 & '79) and an EMMY Award (1978) for his work on the show. He later served as a producer for "The Great Muppet Caper" (1980) directed by Henson. Oz’s directorial career was launched in 1982 when Henson asked him to help direct "The Dark Crystal". He found the experience to be positive, so helmed the third theatrical Muppet film, "The Muppets Take Manhattan” (1984), which he also rewrote. Two years later, with Henson in the director's chair, Oz was one of the voices in "Labyrinth". Moving outside of Henson's orbit, Oz directed the screen version of the musical "Little Shop of Horrors" (1986), "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" (1988), "What About Bob?" (1991), and the Kevin Kline vehicle "In & Out" (1997). In a turn of fortune, in 1979, George Lucas approached Henson to create a puppet character for "The Empire Strikes Back". Henson was too busy to voice the puppet and Oz got the nod. He would become the voice of Yoda in five Star Wars movies: "The Empire Strikes Back", "Return of the Jedi", "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace", "Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones" and "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith" and well known films including "Zathura: A Space Adventure", "Monsters Inc.", "Muppet Treasure Island", "Muppets from Space" and "The Muppets Take Manhattan". Oz's father, Isadore 'Mike' Oznowicz presided as president of the Puppeteers of America. He has appeared in a number of films including: "Trading Places", "Spies Like Us", "Labyrinth", "The Blues Brothers" and "Blues Brothers 2000". "Death At A funeral" received the 2007 Audience Awards at Locarno International Film Festival and U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. Synopsis

On the morning of their father's funeral, the family and friends of the deceased each arrive with his or her own roiling anxieties. Son Daniel knows he will have to face his flirty, blow-hard, famous-novelist brother Robert who's just flown in from New York, not to mention the promises of a new life he's made to his wife Jane. Meanwhile, Daniel's cousin Martha and her dependable new fiance Simon are desperate to make a good impression on Martha's uptight father, a plan that literally goes out the window when Simon accidentally ingests a designer drug en route to the service, leaving him prone to uncontrollable bouts of delirium and nudity in front of his potential in-laws. Then comes the real shocker. A mysterious guest named Peter threatens to unveil an earth-shattering family secret. As mayhem and unfortunate mishaps ensue on every front, it is now up to the two brothers to hide the truth from their family and friends and figure out how to not only bury their beloved father, but the secret he's been keeping. It's not looking good.

The Verdict "If you haven't had a good laugh in a long while then you will, in all probability, provided you understand and have a liking for British humour, find "Death At A Funeral", pretty funny. Ok, so I'm hedging my bets, but I am trying to make a salient point here. Because everyone is trumpeting "Death At A Funeral" as "the funniest film in years", "the funniest British film in years", blah, blah, blah, you might just get the impression it is all of that. Yes, it is funny. Yes, the ensemble cast does a good job. Yes, it is British. But, unless you haven't been to a cinema in the last five years, "Death At A Funeral" is only on a par with most good quality British films. I suspect some will be leaving the cinema thinking they've 'been there, seen that before' and questioning whether the film is 'all that funny'. Some I am sure won't even find it funny and a few will think it's all a touch childishly stupid. On the whole, most will have a good laugh and quickly forget "Death At A Funeral". It is fun to watch but to be truthful it is 'easily forgettable' and unfortunately, pretty predictable. All of that shouldn't stop you from cheering yourself up for around an hour and a half. Well worth having a look at. Especially if you want cheering up! 4 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "DEATH AT A FUNERAL" stars .......
New Zealand Screen Award winner Matthew MacFadyen ["Enigma", "In My Fathers Den", "Pride & Prejudice", "Middletown" and "Grindhouse"]; Jane Asher ["Charley Moon", "Henry VIII and His Six Wives" and "Paris by Night"]; Rupert Graves ["Mrs Dalloway", "Extreme Ops" and "V for Vendetta"]; British Comedy Award winner Kris Marshall ["The Most Fertile Man in Ireland", "Iris", "Deathwatch" and "Love Actually"]; 2004 Satellite Special Achievement Award Peter Dinklage ["13 Moons", "The Station Agent", "Lassie" and "Little Fugitive"] and Peter Vaughan ["An Ideal Husband", "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" and "The Queen of Sheba's Pearls"] as Uncle Alfie.
"DEATH AT A FUNERAL" was .......
directed by Frank Oz ["The Dark Crystal", "The Indian in the Cupboard", "In & Out", "Bowfinger", "The Score" and "The Stepford Wives"]; screenplay by RTS Television Award winner Dean Craig ["Black Eyes", "Beautiful Creatures" and "Kiss of Life"]; costume design by Natalie Ward ["Heartlands", "Enduring Love", "Derailed" and "Venus"]; production design by Michael Howells ["Emma", "An Ideal Husband", "Bright Young Things" and "Nanny McPhee"]; edited by Beverley Mills [TV'S "Sons & Lovers", "Dalziel and Pascoe" and "Shameless"]; cinematography by Oliver Curtis ["The Final Curtain", "Owning Mahowny" and "The Wedding Date"]; original music by RTS Television Award winner Murray Gold ["Beautiful Creatures", "Miranda" and "In The Park"]; casting by ["Millions", "Kinky Boots", "The Chronicles Of Narnia", "Scoop", "Becoming Jane" and "Sunshine"]. Who's Who?

Matthew MacFadyen Keeley Hawes Andy Nyman Ewen Bremner Daisy Donovan Alan Tudyk Jane Asher Kris Marshall Rupert Graves Peter Vaughan Thomas Wheatley Peter Egan Peter Dinklage Brendan O'Hea Jeremy Booth Angela Curran Kelly Eastwood Gareth Milne

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Daniel Jane Howard Justin Martha Simon Sandra Troy Robert Uncle Alfie The Reverend Victor Peter Undertaker Mourner Sandra's Friend Katie Edward

Run Time 90 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2007 - Sidney Kimmel Entertainment - All Rights Reserved ©2007 All Rights Reserved - Protected by Australian & International Copyright. Trademark Laws Apply.