Movie Review - Dinner For Shmucks

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2010 – Spoiler alerts A US remake of a sharp French comedy, but actually a very good movie in its own right, which is unusual with such remakes. Tim Conrad (Paul Rudd) is a business financier invited to suck up to his boss for favours. He gets a chance to attend the boss’s secretive ‘Dinner for Winners’ party which is really a party for sad losers the rich and powerful can mock, while deluding them that they are well admired. Rudd is reluctant to go as both he and his girlfriend find the idea repulsive, but then Rudd meets IRS clerk, Barry Speck (Steve Carrell) who is magnificently stupid and very much modelled on Jerry Lee Lewis. Carrell’s performance here is terrific. Though Speck virtually ruins his life by getting confused between his girlfriend and an ex-lover turned crazed stalker, Conrad grows to respect Speck, and eventually the pair ruin the party in mid-flow by revealing to the invitees the true motives of the attending rich & powerful, provoking an angry revenge attack, led by a blind swordsman and a dead-pet reaching psychic and her trained vulture. The movie has great supporting characters, including David Walliams as a Swiss investor, Germaine Clement as a very over the top Bohemian artist, and Lucy Punch as the stalker. The real joy here though are the wonderful mouse dioramas and paintings Peck creates, which come to play a key role in the story. They were created by special effects specialists, The Chiodo Brothers. The Youtube features the opening credits which shows the opening diorama in one of the loveliest starts to a movie ever. It gets quite dark after this. The film got a mixed reception, but I loved it. Arthur Chappell