Eulogy (2004)

I'm usually a fan of dramedies that involve family troubles and the hardships that come with loving your parents and siblings but also being annoyed to no living end with them but "Eulogy" was just so bland and flavorless.The script for the film is just weak and sparsely sprinkled with unfunny jokes. They are so unfunny that I found myself getting into an internal debate and question whether what I saw was intended to be funny or was just something spat out on to the script page. Then you have one-dimensional characters that were written without anything neither interesting about them nor deep enough to be relatable and likable. Finally, you have a cast who really, really looks like they just don't give a flying flip about what they are making. It really made for a film that was just one long experiment in boredom and was incredibly tedious. It's a shame because there's decent actors in it and it might have been better if more care was taken with the entire product.

This is a rather quirky comedy of a movie. The title should give some clue. I usually enjoy Zooey Deschanel, and again, she was "on"! For me, she's the glue in this zany story. As the title infers, someone is deceased and here ensures a story, building towards arriving at the eulogy of that life lived. And that is where familiarity might end. Zooey's character drives the story forward. The cast of characters, many of known success, all blend into the craziness of "Eulogy". For me, the only one that annoyingly stands out, always in front of his shadow, is Ray Romano. Probably because I find him annoying, in person or in character. He's always the same and leaves me wondering, "is he really that person". I hope not, because it is so annoying. And why does he get top billing! Aside from that, this movie is a "kick in the pants" and when in the mood for some chaotic humor, it's worth a view.

It's one of the few cases that Brazilian's title, even thought doesn't translate properly, does it in a way that fits in the movie. "Eulogy" is a black humor comedy that makes you feel like you have a normal family. You see, families in general usually try to pretend everything is okay, even thought it is not. However, the family portrayed in this film say what they mean all the time, making you feel sorry for the character that is being offended. The lesbian couple is the most insulted, while Alice is the meanest character of the family. In many scenes I assumed that it was an English movie, albeit none of the characters had such accent or anything, which makes me wonder how did I see that coming. There are moments unintentionally funny, like the smoking weed scene. The most ironical scene is the last twist, when they find out the grandfather hasn't left any money for them, considering he spent everything in order to enjoy life. It is not a beautiful movie to see with a respectful message, but it's professionally well done and entertaining, with cleverness. Thumbs up.

I live in a weird world where someone can give this movie 10 stars. IMDb has failed. Right now it has a 6.6 - that is a failure of the rating system. I gave it a chance because of that rating and it has a good cast. But everything is bad. The dialogue, the acting, the over-the-top scenes, the directing. Everything. It's like a bad sitcom. It has that annoying bubbly music playing in the background to remind us it's a comedy. Everyone is a caricature, nobody is a real person. The dialogue is stuff no one would ever say in real life, that why it isn't funny. Things are funny when they strike at truths that you can relate to. This movie fails at that. It's just a bunch of stupid people saying stupid things. I gave it 3 stars because I had a few chuckles and Zooey is sweet but that's it.