Eulogy [DVD]

Good film, very funny at times. Great performance by Debra Winger. Hank Azaria is also brilliant. All actors pull their weight and the dysfunctionality of the family is quite believable.

"Eulogy" was not bad, with some excellent characterizations and clever humour. Whilst not hysterical, there are moments where you will find yourself laughing out load, and shaking your head in disbelief. Although there were times when I felt that the story was more about getting a laugh than it was about the characters, or the situation in which they found themselves. Families are indeed the substance of our being, and like it or not, they are part of our very identity either in a positive or negative way.Everyone also has secrets, and whilst some of these may be large enough to bulldoze mountains, others are less intrusive in the lives of others. Unless you are the recently deceased family patriarch, who in his Last Will and Testament reveals all. That revelation has the effect of making the families separate truths obvious, and forcing his children to realise that much of what they believed about him, was in fact the furtherest from the truth.The two twins in particular, whilst being the very spawn of Satan, were perhaps the best part of this movie. They were extremely good actors for their ages, and I found myself completely taken by their characters. Of course if they were my children, I would have retired from sanity long ago. They however, belong to someone else so I can laugh perversely at their expense.My one real criticism of this movie however, is the special effects. They were low budget and poorly done. This is manifestly obvious in many of the scenes requiring such, and as a consequence detracted from the substance of the movie. It makes for a look and feel which removes the audience from the fantasy of the story, and pulls the audience into a unnecessary realisation that this is merely a movie.One needs to escape every now and then, and whilst this is not the best comedy out there, for its price its well worth the time and effort.

Good price. Good condition. Arrived on time. Works perfectly.This isn't the best movie in the world.But, it is nice to put on if you're not going to be concentrating too much- if you're studying or cleaning etc...The family-orientated plot is nice and the movie overall is funny.Zooey Deschanel is very good in this and makes it worth the watch.Despite it's flaws I enjoyed the movie.

Never quite hit the mark. I was looking forward to a real laugh and at times it delivered but again it left one trying to fit in all the pieces. There was too much over acting..unbelievable in many respects.What did the lawyer tell the widow at the beginning I wonder.

a fairly funny film, some real belly laughs at times. myself and my friends really enjoyed this even though its making fun of a very serious subject...death. what can i say. but we did stop short of laughing ourselves to death..

The plot is potentially fine, and the acting in general pretty good, but the script just doesn't have enough substance and laughs to bowl you along.

There are some good laughs in this film, but for my tastes a lot of the humour is too american for me. This film is watchable, but I found some of the characters and slapstick quite annoying. 'Little Miss Sunshine' is similar in plot (ie the workings of a dysfunctional family all brought together by an event/death) but far outstrips 'Eulogy', so my recommendation would be to buy that instead.

With its mordant, caustic humor and its sardonic and scornful wit, Eulogy certainly has its fair share of laughs. The movie is a clever comedy of family dysfunction, and is quite heartwarming in its own bizarre, comedic way. Funerals are not the happiest of occasions, but in this film, the family funeral of the traveling salesman, world-weary Collins patriarch (Rip Torn) gets a irreverent makeover, as his grown children gather together with their bratty offspring to console their pill-popping widow, Charlotte (Piper Laurie), who is now determined to commit suicide to join her husband.Just like any healthily dysfunctional family they revert back to their childhood personas and have a weekend of family bickering for old-times sake. There's Daniel (Hank Azaria), a perennial dope smoker and a once famous child actor, who is now relegated to performing in adult films; Skip (Ray Romano) and his naughty and mischievous twin boys; Lucy (Kelly Preston), who has brought home her fiancé Judy (Famke Janssen); and Alice (a fabulous Debra Winger), who is so bossy and wound so tighter than a knot that her husband and children are literally afraid to speak.The narrator and sanest of them all is the gorgeously wide-eyed Kate (Zooey Deschanel). She is asked to delivery her grandfather's eulogy and she struggles with the responsibility, but after a few days asking questions about their lives and discovering a dark family secret, she comes up with the perfect words to say - if only she can get them out before the family ruins the funeral.There are all sorts of madcap and dysfunctional antics, as the siblings unleash years of pent-up animosity on one another. For years Alice has, for some unexplained reason, been resentful of Lucy's lesbianism, and poor Lucy has endured constant taunts; this of course climaxes with a nock down drag out fight one evening at the dinner table. But it's not all anger and mayhem: Kate reconnects with an old summer love (Jesse Bradford), Alice meets a friend from her past, and Skip's twin boys get their own private lessons in sex education.The strength of Eulogy is the fine ensemble cast, and there's a great sense of believability - one can honestly accept as true that these people are a real family. Each actor exaggerates and inflates his role to great effect. Debra Winger is especially funny as Alice - she's a motor mouthed, obnoxious control freak and most viewers will experience a mixture of shock and riotous disbelief as she angrily spews profanity at Skip's boys when they turn their noses up at her cooking.All the actors obviously relish playing bad, but throughout the last part of the movie, there's a sort of half-hearted attempt to instill some honest sentimentality into the proceedings. It's all too little too late, as most viewers will probably feel that the damage has already been done. Mike Leonard April 05.