Razor Ramon
I'm on the fence with this movie. I picked this up in a $5 4-movie pack; so I wasn't expecting much, and for that I can't fault it. The film paints a nice image of 1960s (err...1950s) Texas, which both serves as a great setting and the film's main problem. The gritty farm where most of the film takes place in the midst of nighttime gives off the sense of death (the Funeral the title is referencing), yet there are many instances of this deathly tone being directly contradicted. Without giving anything away, this film has numerous over-the-top scenarios (exotic animals and weird fetishes) that it overuses to the point of intentional farce, yet it takes them extremely seriously. You wonder if it is purposely humorous for most of the way through as there are so many laughs to be had but no indication of comedic recognition. The final thing is the cast. All of them do their jobs, with Martin Sheen obviously having the best bits; the only problem is that they all represent a polarized 50s stereotype (yes, 50s. Even though its supposedly set in the late 60s it REALLY feels the decade before). There's no characters to relate with, except for the little boy, played by Quinton Jones. Even he though seems a little off for most of the film, with unnecessary quirks of every character rampant throughout. It's not a terrible film and you'll get some entertainment out of it, but probably not how the filmmakers intended. It certainly isn't worth any money by itself.
sglacker
Given how long this film took to get from filming to any sort of release (and I'm still not sure how widely it was ever released in theaters) I had feared that it would be a stinker. I followed it because one of my vintage cars was used in filming, and I'd just about given up on ever actually seeing the finished product. My car never made it on screen, having been barely out of frame in a scene set at a hospital, but the movie turned out to be quite, quite good. I wonder how well it might play outside of Texas, and seriously doubt it would have much international attraction, but for me it was a breath of fresh air. Characters full of enough eccentricities to be actual Texans like me, but not the typical overblown 'Hollywierd' caricatures of Texans that make me sick. Somewhere in the production crew, there was obviously someone with at least a fair understanding of Texas folklore and culture. Not quite the skill and depth of Tim McCanlies' Texas-based movies ('Seconhand Lions' and 'Dancer Texas' which for me set the standard by which all Texas-based films should be judged) but still with a similar feel.
Verbal-17
The ads suggest that this movie is a drama, or even a thriller- serious in tone, about serious stuff. I rented it because I liked the cast and was very pleasantly surprised to find that it was in fact a very funny and touching comedy-drama, about a bizarre but very likable family, that gathers in Texas to mourn the passing of its patriarch (Martin Sheen). The characters could have been made into caricatures to be laughed at, but instead are drawn with a gentle, touching hand that makes them feel like real people, likable in their own way. Give this one a look. It's extremely watchable and very funny, and filled with warm, wonderful performances.
rbreen
An entertaining but overwrought exercise in American Baroque, the best way to describe this film is to say that it begins in David Lynch territory, rambles through Tennessee Williams country, and was last seen heading dangerously close to Waltons Mountain. Set in Texas in the late 1960s, the plot - dark secrets emerge when a family gathers for a family funeral - is hardly original, and while the Texan self-image comes in for some welcome satire, the cosy self-satisfied way in which the whole thing is tied up at the end would have a serious dramatist like Tennessee Williams spinning in his grave. Martin Sheen is much too decent to play the wicked old patriarch, and while any film that includes Joanne Whalley, ear-sucking, and camels can't be entirely bad, this is not a good advertisement for any of them.
AD
