Wonderful Movie

Beautiful, moving film.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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.

This film was written by somebody who understands what it's like to try to be noticed (appreciated) when bigger acts are constantly outshining you: it's the theme that pops up repeatedly with each character. So if I could tell the writers something directly, it would be: "Relax. And stop trying So Hard, and quit being So Obvious about it. You've got what it takes already. Then maybe one day you can actually succeed, and they will all Really Like You." Eulogy, as an ensemble cast in the tradition of The Big Chill, will be a familiar format to most: a death in the family (the father in this case)forces all the grown children, and the grandchildren, to reunite for the funeral. It's an uncomfortable family gathering to say the least, because, in true Hollywood tradition, there are plenty of secrets and resentments to be revealed as they plan the final arrangements and "comfort" their inexplicably suicidal mother. In a family where everybody's a frustrated diva, the stage is set for plenty of hysterics and dramatics.This film wants to be the quirky Big Chill of its generation, and it partially succeeds. The cast (good, underused talent for the most part, including Piper Laurie as the widowed matriarch and Hank Azaria as a struggling has-been-turned-porn-star son)is certainly up to the task, but the writing paces unevenly between staple comedy clichés and shock value moments. Oh look, the grownup sisters are settling their long-held grudges with a jiujitsu catfight on the dining room rug! Ew, the 12 year old twin nephews are making lewd comments along with Ray Romano, their dad! You get the gist. There are some LOL moments and some chuckles sprinkled sporadically throughout a script that is desperately trying to jam-pack the humor into every crevice.Throughout the never ending and embarrassing family hijinks and trips to the hospital, we have Kate Collins, our heroine, dealing with her own side plot drama. She has a childhood bestie whom she eventually developed feelings for as they became teenagers, but it ended after the first kiss when for unexplained reasons, she broke it off and basically fled. Ryan still lives in town, and now that Kate has resurfaced for the funeral, he sees his chance to win her back. Played by indie-favorite Zooey Deschanel (in her usual, reliably quirky, cute-girl persona), Kate is the least "drama-queen" of the bunch; you have to wonder if she's the changeling in this family.So by the end, I had enjoyed Eulogy for its sometimes-witty dialog and formulaic feel-good moments. There is quite a lot of heart behind all of the bluster. It was a pleasant way to pass an evening, all things considered.

Writer/Director Michael Clancy must be an only child. That's the only way I can explain him making a comedy about family that has even less connection to familial reality than your average lame sitcom from the 1980s. Eulogy makes Different Strokes, My Two Dads and Mr. Belvedere look like hard hitting, gritty portrayals of human domestic conflict.The basic story is that the patriarch of the Collins family (Rip Torn) has passed away and his children and their families are returning home for his funeral. As they all get together, the family's various neuroses and unresolved issues are supposed to spill out all over the screen in a humorous but touching fashion. What actually happens is that a bunch of characters so flat they have less than two dimensions alternately shout, mope, laugh and act like fools. These 1-and-a-half dimensional people don't remind you of the members of your own family. They remind you of the folks you saw in the insane asylum during that phenomenally ill-considered field trip back in 7th grade.There's Daniel Collins (Hank Azaria), a former child star who's more connected to his cell phone than to his own daughter. Danny's daughter Kate (Zooey Deschanel) is supposed to be the normal one in the family, so her viciously passive-aggressive abuse of her childhood boyfriend Ryan (Jesse Bradford) is brushed off as some sort of charming quirk. Danny's sister Judy (Kelly Preston) can be described in exactly two words, "resentful lesbian". His other sister Alice (Debra Winger) is such an intense bitch you're amazed she's still alive, because anyone who spends more than 5 minutes around her would want to gut her with a rusty pair of scissors. Danny's brother Skip (Ray Romano) is the sleazy black sheep of the Collins clan, which fits because Ray Romano looks like he shares more DNA with a lobster than he does with the rest of the cast. Danny's mother (Piper Laurie) is such a void that the script has to give her a couple of "amusing" suicide attempts, otherwise you'd never even notice she's on screen.There's also Skip's degenerate twin boys (Curtis and Keith Garcia), Alice's emotionally annihilated husband (Mark Harelik), Lucy's sweaty-faced lesbian lover (Famke Janssen) and Samantha (Glenne Headly), a nurse who's such a servant of the Almighty Plot Hammer she might as well go through every scene pounding in nails with her forehead.None of these characters seems like a real person for even a moment. None of the allegedly wacky things they do are even vaguely humorous. There's only one actual laugh in the entire movie and that comes from a minor character played by Rene Auberjonois, proving he remembers from his time on the TV show Benson how to sell even the most faltering joke. Zooey Deschanel is darling and the rest of the cast give it their all. Kelly Preston even wrings out some tears, but none of it can make any of this dreck work.I cannot emphasize enough that Eulogy is NOT funny. Watching it is like being trapped in a room with a fat, smelly guy who's trying to tell you a bad joke and keeps screwing up the punch line. And then when the story tries to act like it has some legitimate point to make about family life, it's like the fat, smelly guy tries to feel you up. The only thing you can think or feel while it's going on is how much you want it to stop.If writer/director Clancy set out to make a deliberately boring, unpleasant and aggravating movie as some sort of ironic commentary on how boring, unpleasant and aggravating family can be…I guess he succeeded. It's a Pyrrhic victory at best, though. If he was genuinely trying to make an entertaining film, he failed as thoroughly as a man with a script and a camera can fail.

I was up very late last night and I thought I would watch half this movie before sleeping and the other half today. But, I was laughing so much during the whole 90 minutes that I wasn't even much aware of how much time went by. It's been ages since my jaw ached from watching a movie. 'Eulogy' is one of the funniest films. There have been numerous movies about dysfunctional families but what makes this one different is the unique characters, the novel jokes, the excellent ensemble cast, a fresh script and it's genuine fun.Michael Clancy's direction and screenplay are quite amusing. It would have been very easy to mess up a film like this one by adhering to clichés but Clancy's novel treatment makes it a refreshing experience. Where else will you hear lines like 'You don't throw a lemon at me in front of a lesbian' or 'She has made a business out of persecuting me and I'm supposed to sit here, at my father's funeral, and watch her *beep*-sing at Samantha?'? Alright, they sound a lot better withing the context of the movie.All the actors do a remarkable job and terrifically fit together as a messed up family that includes a dead father (the skilled Rip Torn), a suicidal mother (a sublime Piper Laurie), a chronically angry daughter (welcome back Debra Winger) and her husband , a hormonal son (the hilarious Ray Romano), a sassy daughter and her no-nonsense fiancée (played brilliantly by Kelly Preston and Famke Janssen), a pot-smoking son (a superb Hank Azaria), his questioning daughter (a luminous Zooey Deschanel who marvelously carries the film), her twin perverted cousins and their three selectively mute younger cousins. To support the family there's a sensual nurse (a fiery Glenne Headly) and a guy from the neighborhood (a charismatic Jesse Bradford). Quite a magnificent ensemble! The entire comedy elements are very well displayed. At times it is wacky and at times subtle but it all goes well together and remains enjoyable and wildly charming from start to end. With movies like this, who needs laughing gas?