Despite an all-star cast led by Steve Carrell, Paul Rudd and Zach Galifianakis, and direction by Jay Roach (“Meet the Parents”), “Dinner for Schmucks” fails to provide more than a handful of laughs.
As the movie opens, Tim (Rudd) is vying for a promotion at Fender Financial. After impressing his boss during a meeting Tim is invited to a “dinner for winners”—an annual contest during which each employee brings an “extraordinary individual” (a.k.a. idiot), and the person who brings the biggest idiot wins.
Things start to pick up when Tim hits Barry (Carrell) with his car. As it turns out, Barry uses dead mice to recreate artistic masterpieces (mousterpieces), and Tim immediately recognizes Barry’s winning potential and invites him to the dinner. What follows is a predictable series of misadventures that begin when Barry shows up a night early for the dinner.
First, Barry invites Tim’s stalker over to the apartment, then tells his girlfriend, Jill, that Tim is having an affair. Barry and Tim spend the rest of the night and next morning trying unsuccessfully to fix Tim’s relationship and secure his promotion. Unfortunately, we spend almost an hour and a half waiting for the dinner to begin. Until then, we’re reminded time and again that Barry is an idiot and Tim is a jerk.
After Barry wins the competition, Tim finally realizes that people shouldn’t make fun of each other for being eccentric and reveals the contest to the other “extraordinary individuals.” Though the dinner sequence is hilarious, it utilizes the same kind of over-the-top ridiculousness Roach used in "Meet the Parents" and leaves me wondering if Roach has anything new to offer.
Even the performances are completely one-dimensional. Carrell’s Barry is just an exaggerated version of Carrell’s Michael Scott from “The Office.” Rudd’s Tim is an unsympathetic jerk who is nearly impossible to care about as a protagonist.
The only redeeming quality of the entire movie is Jemaine Clement (“Flight of the Conchords”), who plays Kieran, an eccentric artist with an obsession for goats and his own likeness.
On the surface this movie has all the components of a comedic gem, but it doesn’t live up to its potential. The truth is that last year’s break-out hit “The Hangover” raised the bar for summer comedies. Instead of clearing it, Schmucks runs head-first into that bar. Over and over and over.
2 (of 10): Painful - This is giving me a migraine.
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