Dinner For Schmucks

A decent cast wrestle with a crummy script in this loose and creaky Hollywood spin on ‘Le Dîner de Cons’, Francis Veber’s award-winning French play and film. Middle-ranking corporate investment exec Tim (Paul Rudd) is angling for a promotion, but to seal the deal he has to run along with his blokey boss’s invitation to a meal at his mansion to which every guest has to bring an out-and-out idiot. Lucky for Tim, he almost runs over Barry (Steve Carrell), a humourless, thick-skinned tax-office nobody and fan of small stuffed animals. The meal itself, which comes late in the day, feels like an afterthought, with more attention paid to low-grade farcical larks involving Tim’s fiancée Julie (Stephanie Szostak), her self-possessed artist boss (Jemaine Clement), Tim’s ditzy blonde stalker (Lucy Punch), a potential Swiss investor (David Walliams) and Barry’s cruel boss (Zach Galifianakis). Few gags hit the mark, and the ultimate parade of ‘idiots’ is a failure, especially as someone mistook ‘stupid’ for ‘eccentric’.