Eulogy
Three generations come together for the funeral of the family patriarch (Rip Torn). Kate (Zooey Deschanel) is a college freshman, and it's from her perspective that we get to know her wacky family members: Daniel (Hank Azaria), an actor who can only get work as nonsexual supporting characters in porn movies; black-sheep son Skip (Ray Romano); and Lucy (Kelly Preston), who bursts to tell her family she's going to marry her partner (Famke Janssen).
Member Reviews
The Viking funeral - luminol
Zooey Deschanel is usually the go to girl, for off beat, romantically challenged 20 somethings; although she plays slightly younger here as Kate Collins. However, since the film already has enough characters to supply one's yearly caloric intake of quirkiness, she underplays her role in contrast to the others.
Grandma asks Kate, instead of one of her own children, to step up and be the key note speaker at her husband's funeral. The problem is Kate really doesn't have an sustaining memories of her distant grandfather and questions her dad, her aunts and her uncle only to find; he was even more of a conundrum to them.
There's some cleverness here and there. And quite a few misfires---the grandmother is in a serious dramatic movie, while the rest of the cast is in a comedy. Lots of running gags and the accent is on slapstick comedy. There's a certain ineptness in Clancy's story telling---He could have lost all the introduction scenes and begun at Grandma's house as he did the two sister, but as a first time director, I cut the kid some slack. For the most part, I just sat back and enjoyed it---not unlike Ray Romano's two wisecracking twin boys in the film, who can't believe their great fortune in stumbling into this freak show of a family gathering.
Seriously? What are the typical expectations for a dysfunctional family drama ... other than people rehashing ancient wounds and egregious behavior? A film that never got an actual theatrical release already tells us this film isn't going to shine for some reason or other, however "Eulogy" does manage to a few chuckles in a few places.Deserves to be buried - Filmgal
Eulogy has a great cast but not much else going for it. Not black enough to be a black comedy and not funny enough to be a straight comedy, Eulogy is mostly a waste of time whose only redeeming feature is Ray Romano's moustache.
I rented this for Deschanel and Azaria and am the most disappointed by their performances as they just seem to phone it in, in what could otherwise be great over-the-top character pieces for each of them.
The plot sounds like it would be absurdly amusing, but it's not. Characters are jumbled together, no one has any real direction, and the "twist" in the film isn't nearly satisfying enough to make the previous 85 minutes bearable.
Skip it, even if you are a fan of the cast. It's just not worth it.Deschanel and Preston Charm - FilmJunkie
There have been many dysfunctional family comedies, and many are better than this, but there is still a certain oddball charm to this story of a crazy funeral.
The family consists of a former child actor (Hank Azaria) and his daughter (Zooey Deschanel), an uptight mother of an unspeaking brood (Debra Winger), a single dad in charge of two insane twins (Ray Romano) and a lesbian rebel-wannabe (Kelly Preston).
Deschanel is our main character, she is coping with the family shenanigans while also coming to terms with a long-lost romance. Jesse Bradford is charming and great as her ex and the chemistry between them is fully entertaining.
The film meanders, but there are some laughs along the way. I especially liked Kelly Preston in this movie, I usually find her dull and second rate, but she is a revelation as the ignored youngest child who just wants a bit of understanding.
The funeral ends hysterically and almost makes up for the middling rest of the film.
Member Reviews
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The Viking funeral - luminol
Zooey Deschanel is usually the go to girl, for off beat, romantically challenged 20 somethings; although she plays slightly younger here as Kate Collins. However, since the film already has enough characters to supply one's yearly caloric intake of quirkiness, ...Deserves to be buried - Filmgal
Eulogy has a great cast but not much else going for it. Not black enough to be a black comedy and not funny enough to be a straight comedy, Eulogy is mostly a waste of time whose only redeeming feature is Ray Romano's moustache.
I rented this for Deschanel ...Deschanel and Preston Charm - FilmJunkie
There have been many dysfunctional family comedies, and many are better than this, but there is still a certain oddball charm to this story of a crazy funeral.
The family consists of a former child actor (Hank Azaria) and his daughter (Zooey Deschanel), ...