Death At A Funeral (2010)

When I was at the theater on Saturday night to see Up In the Air, I couldn't help but see a large cut-out advertising a remake of Death at a Funeral. The original film of the same name was a minor British comedy back in 2007 and was directed by Frank Oz who is maybe most famous for being the voice of Miss Piggy

I can understand why someone would want to remake respectable foreign language films like say Brothers or Funny Games to open them up to a wider international audience, but Death at a Funeral was in English, came out a mere three years ago and wasn't special enough in my opinion to warrant remaking.

What now baffles me even more is that today I find out it was directed by Neil Labute. Let me write that again. The remake of Death at Funeral was directed by Neil Labute! The same Neil Labute who wrote and directed some of the best movies of the 90s including In the Company of Men, Shape of Things and my favourite Your Friends and Neighbours, with that heartlessly sadistic yet brilliant performance from Jason Patric.

Needless to say Labute has been one of my favourite writer/directors for some time now. I praise the above mentioned films every chance I get, I could get behind Possession, enjoyed the complexity of Nurse Betty and Lakeview Terrace even though he didn't write them and was even one of the sole defenders of his remake of The Wicker Man with Nicholas Cage, but what the hell is this all about?

The film was written by Dean Craig who also wrote the original film and, as a side note, is also writing a script based on Peter Biskind's Down and Dirty Pictures, a non-fiction examination of the Sundance Film Festival and Mirimax Films. That film will be directed by Kenneth Bowser who also made the informative documentary Easy Riders, Raging Bulls based on the Biskind book of the same name. Both books are very much worth reading, but if the forgettable Darwin Awards and What Just Happened? (based on producer Art Linson's non-fiction book of the same name) taught the world anything, it's that non-fiction books lose their appeal when an arbitrary story is laid atop them.

Back on topic. The new Death at a Funeral stars a predominately black cast which includes Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence doing his typical of mugging for the camera, Tracy Morgan doing his typical thing of not being funny, and others including James Marsden, Luke Wilson and Peter Dinklage (who reprises the role he played in the original).

I won't get into what the story is about because if you've seen the original this new one looks like almost an exact remake and if you haven't, the trailer (which you can see here) gives away just about everything anyway.

But what is really the heart of the matter here is my complete bafflement over the trajectory that Neil Labute's career has taken with this entry. I know in my heart that he will one day make great films again, but why would a man of such gifts who specializes in such penetrating and unapologetic dark comedies and social commentaries, be interested in turning what was essentially a British sitcom into what looks like a routine, uninspired African American comedy?

Once upon a time Neil Labute would be ripping films like this to shreds. Now he's making them? I think it's time he stopped whatever it is he is doing and get back to directing his own scripts. Then again, who knows, maybe the thing will be good after all.