Death at a Funeral
Nobody does stark, painful, and above all, hilarious comedies like the Brits. Death at a Funeral is quite possibly the best example this year of exactly that type of comedy Britain is so adept at producing in spades. Frank Oz takes the formula for a traditional British farce- extreme stuffiness injected with irreverent absurdity- and puts it on acid. Literally.
Frank Oz starts the film off with a case of mistaken identity, a hallmark of British comedy. In this movie, however, the mistaken identity is that of the main character’s father- recently deceased, and incorrectly delivered to the wrong country home. Death at a Funeral continues in much the way one could expect of an ensemble piece concerning the bringing together of a patriarch’s eccentric family. Then the drugs kick in.