Jamie passion and passionfruit!

A farce in the traditional style of the British which I have to say I enjoyed thoroughly.  The goings on at what is supposed to be a sedate family funeral with mixed up bodies and pills, hidden affairs and confrontations between people who should never be in the same room together, it makes for a real cocktail that thankfully is very well paced and after the first half hour virtually lurches head first to its denouement without stopping for breath.  Either you like this type of thing or not and the scatological British humour and milking embarrassment in social situations are both done throughout here.  But its not every day we get this type of film and if you accept the stereotyping and the implausibilities it is worth seeing.  On the other hand, I would stress to add that it is not a great film, merely a very entertaining one and that history has far cleverer examples of farces.  Matthew MacFadyen shows what a versatile actor he is at the centre of this work and I liked Alan Tudyk as the boyfriend on hallucinogenic drugs (by mistake) and Alan Nyman as the hypochondriac.  The women have less to do and Jane Asher seems a bit wasted, but nearly everyone gets a moment to shine in – for Rupert Graves, it is his Bono style entrance.  Peter Dinklage has a nice small role too.  Verdict: watchable fun and light.

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