"Steve" Reviews Death at a Funeral

Some of the comments from "Steve" about Death at a Funeral:

This is a very clever story, by Dean Craig, with new escalating complications arriving with every scene, and all sorts comedy bits scattered throughout each scene – sight gags, embarrassment humor, slapstick, jokes of anticipated circumstances, personality clashes, and more. It's a mix across most of the range from highbrow to lowbrow humor, although it mostly sticks to the middle of that range. Some people may dislike the lowbrow end of the range, but most of the audience was roaring with laughter from start to end. At its core, the story is a progression of intertwined comic situations, but there's enough drama to engage the audience in the plot. Some degree of suspension of disbelief is necessary, but it's more a matter of the improbability of that many humorous circumstances turning up on the same day than any individual circumstance seeming impossible. On the dramatic level, the story is good. On the comedy side, the script is excellent.

The directing, by Frank Oz, is excellent. One aspect of the film's directing is managing the large cast of characters, and their assorted and intertwined sub-plots. That's very well done, but I did have trouble catching the names of some of the characters, so I rate it very good at best. The other aspect is comic timing, which is excellent – the laughs were frequent enough that I probably missed quite a few funny bits, which I'll be able to laugh at if I see the film again. That is, I expect that it should have good second-view potential.

The reviewer also comments that he enjoyed Matthew's acting.

Read the full review here.

(Caution, heavy spoilers in article)