Review – Death at a Funeral (2010)

James Marsden sitting on a rooftop in his birthday suit, happy and high as a kite; that’s the image that stands out in my head after seeing Death at a Funeral. For the most part, the film was a hilarious blend of line bits and scenes. Starring Chris Rock (Aaron), Martin Lawrence (Ryan), and Zoe Saldana (Elaine) among a cast of characters, this film urbanizes the original British 2007 version written by Dean Craig. Director Neil LaBute (Lakeview Terrace, Nurse Betty) moves this dark comedy in a relatively fast pace albeit subdued for a Chris Rock vehicle.

The story centers on the memorial service for Aaron and Ryan’s father at his home, as the two brothers’ conflicting relationship sets a backdrop for the mayhem that ensues. Elaine (the cousin) brings along her nervous boyfriend (James Marsden) who can’t deal with her father (Ron Glass), and she spends the time warding off her over-confident ex-boyfriend (Luke Wilson). Amidst the wackiness of the mother-daughter-in-law (Loretta Devine and Regina Hall) issues and Uncle Russell’s (Danny Glover) wheelchair-bound crabbiness, along comes Frank (Peter Dinklage) whose sinister creepiness is the prelude to the dark family secret about to unfold. It is that secret that creates the entanglements, breaking up the ceremony in chaos.

While the characters do a fine job of bringing humor to an otherwise solemn event, the scene stealer in this film is James Marsden (Oscar). His smiling dopiness adds to the giggle factor that is mostly understated for everyone else in the film. Who knew the ass-kicking X-Men hero had great comedic timing? The only complaint I had for his scenes were that they were way too short. The rooftop scene, however, is the highlight that brings the open-ended issues to a close, and it’s not short of eye candy (reminiscent of the phrase, “smooth as a baby’s bottom”). Zoe Saldana plays the doting girlfriend seamlessly well in her slim-fitting black funeral dress (where is she hiding that blue Avatar tail?).

As a remake this movie stands well on its own if you haven’t seen the original British version. Of course, with a touch of Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence, you do get a more contemporary feel and more outlandish and sometimes nonsensical humor. This film captures the absurdity of all the individual instances and brings them to a well-rounded and emphatic ending. The one thing it could have left out is the vulgar bathroom humor (think Ben Stiller in Along Came Polly) which is not new to the storyline. Still, it’s worth a matinee or DVD viewing, unless you prefer to see Oscar in his birthday suit a lot sooner on the big screen.

James Marsden

I never thought the words “thank you Kirk Cameron” would ever pass through my lips, but there you go. The Hollywood Urban Legend goes that a young James Marsden was vacationing in Hawaii with his family when he met the 80’s sitcom star. An invitation from Kirk to visit Los Angeles proved to be the momentous beginning to what’s becoming an increasingly exciting career for the Oklahoma native.

We profiled James when the site first started a-way back when. Turns out our predication that he was One2Watch4 was a sound one. We do occasionally get it right. It was time to blow the dust off and update you on what James has been up to recently. After his “eye-catching” turn as Scott Summers in the first two X-Men films (and beyond disappointing disappearance in the third) James scored some great parts in big movies like Superman Returns (2006) and the film version of the Broadway musical of the cult classic film Hairspray (2007). But it was his comedic roles in Enchanted (2007) and 27 Dresses (2008) that put Marsden into a higher tax bracket, so to speak and got him some excellent exposure.

James has three attention-grabbing movies in the works. The Box, set to be released on October 30th is Donnie Darko (2001) director Richard Kelly’s next venture into the creepy with James and Cameron Diaz playing a couple who have to make a difficult life-changing decision. Filming soon is the American re-make of the cult-classic Straw Dogs (1971) where James plays a writer who comes to a rural southern town and doesn’t exactly get along with the neighbors. Speaking of re-makes, James is part of the ensemble in the American update of Death at a Funeral (2007, if you haven’t seen the original, rent it this weekend!). And finally Marsden is part of the impressive cast chosen by controversial director David O. Russell (I Heart Huckabees – 2004, Three Kings – 1999) in his next project called Nailed. It’s a very exciting future for our guy here.

And to think this was all made possible by “Mike Seaver”.

Fansites:
James Marsden Web
James Marsden Fan
James Marsden Fan dot Net

Official Movie Sites:
Hop
Death at a Funeral
The Box

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(48 votes, average: 4.60 out of 5)

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