Dinner for Schmucks is a remake of the 1999 French film The Dinner Game. The French are noted for their appreciation of Jerry Lewis, and having seen this film, it is no surprise to me that this story was popular in France.
This movie is essentially a modern day Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin movie with Steve Carell in the Lewis role and Paul Rudd in the Martin role. The hallmarks of a Lewis and Martin movie are all there - the straight man is having trouble with his romantic interest, the socially awkward idiot enters his life and causes more problems, but ultimately the friendship they form saves the day. Interspersed throughout the story are zany bits of slapstick and painfully awkward situations. You cringe as much as you laugh.
Being that it is a modern take on a Jerry Lewis movie, the humor is a good deal bawdier than Jerry Lewis' family friendly 1960s comedies. Explicit sexual humor abounds, and the film comes very, very, very close to full frontal nudity though it does so in a ridiculous way.
The basic premise of Dinner for Schmucks is thus: wealthy investment management executives search their city for eccentric, socially awkward people, invite them to dinner, laugh at them, and then crown one of the "idiots" as the night's winner. That sounds mean, right? Well, it is mean, and therein lies the trouble with this movie.
Clearly, the executives are the bad guys because they are making fun of these "idiots." The audience is supposed to be repulsed by the suits. But, the audience isn't really all that different than the suits. After all, the audience is invited to laugh at the idiots too, which it can't do, because laughing at the idiots is wrong.
Where then, does the humor lie? It lies in the awkwardness. Unable to laugh and unable to grieve, the audience sits in tension between the two. Like in Meet the Parents, the humor, if we can call it that, arises from the uncomfortable situations the protagonist finds himself in while dealing with the socially awkward idiot. If you like that kind of "humor," or rather, if you can stand it, you'll enjoy Dinner for Schmucks.
Dinner for Schmucks is an example of a comedy of manners, in which, a high social class is critiqued by its interactions with a lower social class. Classically, subtle wit is more important than broad humor (like slapstick). Like Jerry Lewis' films, however, Dinner for Schmucks is packed with very broad, physical humor. Some people will like this; others will find it silly and unfunny.
The central conflict in this movie revolves around Tim's attempt to obtain a promotion, because he believes that doing so will impress his girlfriend enough that she will agree to marry him. The dinner for idiots is an initiation right of sorts into the upper echelons of his company. This comedy of manners is critiquing our society's often unspoken belief that material worth is of greatest worth and that it is ok to step on whomever you need to in order to increase your material worth.
I resonate and agree with this critique. Material worth clearly isn't of greatest value. Other things are a much more important foundation for a correctly-lived life. The movie sides with faithfulness, truthfulness, and kindness as winning out over greed, pride, and dishonesty, and for that I applaud this film. The film's posture toward the "idiots" is particularly heartening. We are invited not to laugh at them, but to embrace them with all their idiosyncrasies and annoying personality traits. I know I need all the encouragement I can get to better live out this kind of love.
Is Dinner for Schmucks kind of cheesy? Yes. Is is bawdy? Yes. Is it light and mostly predictable? Yes.
Is it also truthful? I think so.
-- Elijah Davidson
No comments:
Post a Comment