Death at a Funeral

I saw this movie on the day Melbourne made a brief returned to winter. It was cold, bleak and drizzling. (Of course the drizzle is a good thing in this rained starved country.) Parking was a problem and we were a little late and had to blunder into our seats in the dark.

We laughed at the opening sequence. It was predictable with a street map and a coffin moving along it, but it was funny. Was it the day, our mood or the fact the movie is very funny in a slap stick, farcical way? It was probably all those things. I laughed out loud, I was moved by the emotions and at others times caught up in the tension that was there.

Well known faces popped up - Matthew MacFadyen, Jane Asher, Robert Graves Peter Egan and Peter Vaughan etc. The story is the funereal of Daniel and Robert’s father at his country estate and the dysfunctional family that is brought together for the event. There is also a blackmailer who has come to expose unsavory episodes in the father’s recent past.

Some of it is predicable, some plain silly, some scatological and some gloriously funny. It is also a family drama and full of family problems.

If you want to lighten the day go and laugh. We all need something to make us laugh. The shots of the inside of this country house are fascinating – what a beautiful house.