Many moons ago I was going through a phase of watching as many French films that the local video shop (video shop!) had to rent. One of those films was Le diner de cons, an OK, if instantly forgettable comedy in which a group of friends invite a supposed “idiot” to dinner for their own amusement. It hardly needs a Hollywood remake but, lo and behold, we now have Dinner For Schmucks. Though it is only loosely based on the original, this is still spectacularly overblown and further evidence of director Jay Roach’s waning powers. The main “idiot” in the film is played by Steve Carell and he provides virtually all of the laughs. In fact, he pretty much carries the film on his shoulders as many other characters are flatter than week old sparkling water. The exception being Jemaine Clement who’s performance as a sleazy artist doesn’t garner as many laughs as it should but it’s good to see him playing something a world away from his FOTC persona. That the film is outrageously silly doesn’t mean it’s automatically bad of course, but there are too many story lines going on at once and the final idiot’s dinner is very low on laughs. On the positive side, the film does end on a heartening note at least and Carell’s banter with Paul Rudd (who has reluctantly selected Carell as his “idiot”) does provide the film with some semblance of backbone. Overall though, this is just further proof of Hollywoods original ideas barrel running dry.
The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Too OTT with many gags falling flat, but Carell just about stops things from being a total disaster. Rating: 5/10.
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