Everyone’s a loser in ‘Dinner for Schmucks’
”
Dinner for Schmucks
”
is a really good concept that perhaps got lost in translation
from the original French version of the movie
”
Le Diner de Cons,
”
which I haven’t seen.
The comedy, which came out in theaters a few weeks ago, stars
Paul Rudd and Steve Carell. Rudd is usually good in buddy movies
where he often plays the slightly more sensible guy who gets pulled
into drama by his pal.
Everyone’s a loser in ‘Dinner for Schmucks’
“Dinner for Schmucks” is a really good concept that perhaps got lost in translation from the original French version of the movie “Le Diner de Cons,” which I haven’t seen.
The comedy, which came out in theaters a few weeks ago, stars Paul Rudd and Steve Carell. Rudd is usually good in buddy movies where he often plays the slightly more sensible guy who gets pulled into drama by his pal.
That is the case in “I Love You, Man,” where his Peter Klaven tries to be a little more of a guys’ guy to please his fiancee Zooey (Rashida Jones.) But Sydney Fife (Jason Segel) basically turns him into too much of a guy for his fiancee’s taste. In “Role Models,” Danny (Rudd) is slightly saner than his pal Wheeler (Seann William Scott), though they both get stuck volunteering as mentors to avoid jail time.
In these two movies, it’s a little hard to understand why Rudd’s character puts up with the insanity, but at least his character in “Dinner for Schmucks” has plenty of incentive for picking a wacky sidekick.
Tim (Rudd) wants a promotion at his firm, which is in the business of acquiring distressed companies. When he comes up with the next hot idea, he gets invited to have dinner with the boss (Bruce Greenwood.) But it’s not just any dinner as his higher up co-workers explain to him. The point of the dinner is to find someone crazy – an idiot – to entertain them for the evening. The biggest idiot receives a trophy at the end of the night – and Tim thinks it could be his chance to seal a promotion. And Tim thinks a promotion is just what he needs to get his art curator girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak) to finally accept his marriage proposal.
Of course, when Julie finds out the point of the dinner, she is disappointed that Tim would even consider going to the dinner. She just sees it as a mean idea. Tim resolves that he will beg out of the dinner with a back injury. But then on the way to work, fate intervenes.
While driving to work he runs into Barry (Steve Carell) – literally – as Barry is trying to save a dead mouse in the street. It seems it is Barry’s hobby to collect dead mice, taxidermy them, dress them up and recreate famous scenes with them. It’s about as bizarre a talent as one could imagine. To top it off, Barry is also kind of dumb and socially awkward. Tim, of course, invites him to a talent and explains it as a dinner for people with unique talents.
In the meantime, he is invited to a brunch with a potential client Mueller, (David Williams) and Mueller’s wife. The two want to meet Julie since they have an interest in art. Of course, as soon as Julie realizes Tim has not cancelled the dinner, she gets angry with him and leaves without agreeing to go to brunch.
So starts a crazy night and day of escapades as Tim finds himself dragged down into Barry’s idiocy. Tim starts to worry that Julie has been cheating on him with her artist client Kieran (played as over the top as possible by Jemaine Clement, of “Flight of the Conchords fame.) Barry is kind of dumb but well meaning. But Tim is sort of right when he describes him as a hurricane of destruction – except that Barry wouldn’t be in his life at all except that he was trying to take advantage of him.
The movie just drags a bit in the middle, and a lot of the jokes start to feel like repeats, such as a crazy ex-girlfriend who shows up to torment Tim and further alienate him from Julie. Carell does well in his role, but there really isn’t enough substance to the character to really feel sorry for him. No one likes to be the butt of a joke, but at the same time, Barry would be a really irritating guy to hang out with for too long.
The movie is a little heavy-handed with its moral and it’s really easy to figure out whom the real schmucks at the dinner are. Tim has to decide which group of losers he wants to join.
Melissa Flores can be reached at mf*****@pi**********.com. She writes a blog at http://melissa-movielines.blogspot.com, where she writes about movies, TV, food and more.
