Movies

Three generations of a deliciously dysfunctional family gather to bury the family patriarch, the beloved granddaughter of the deceased is given the task of delivering the eulogy. In the days leading up to the funeral, family secrets are revealed, old grudges resurface and the household erupts with renewed vigor.

This movie has nothing if not an impressive cast of Hank Azaria, Zooey Deschanel, Famke Janssen, Kelly Preston, Ray Romano, Rip Torn and Debra Winger. When there are this many names in one movie, often times the movie itself suffers. I do not feel that Eulogy suffered at all.

Zooey Deschanel is the granddaughter given the unfortunate honor of delivering the eulogy for a man about which no one can remember anything positive. A large family that split into as many parts as there are children is reunited to remember a man it was trying to forget. Over a period of a few days you see just how dysfunctional the family can be. You have one family sister chastising the other over her sexual preference and one brother (and his two twin boys) encouraging it. The other brother is simply trying to deal with the fact that his acting career peaked at age 8.

Ray Romano delivers his first enjoyable performance. Not Everybody Loves his show on prime time television, but the comedy provided by Ray and his twin sons made this movie worth watching. Without the three of them this movie may seem a little too cliche. Sure I think an entire film devoted to simply watching his two sons do stupid stuff would be more entertaining than this entire story, but I can get over that.

I think they could have done a little more with the movie, it has a little potential. It is a good movie if someone else wants to watch it. If the decision is yours, I do not think you will be any worse for the wear if you pick something else.

Buy Eulogy $22.38

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