'Dinner for Schmucks' leaves a bitter taste

Director: Jay Roach

Cast: Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Ron Livingston

Cert: 15

Adapted from a much better French film this turns into a mean-spirited farce in which rising business executive Rudd gets a coveted invite to the firm’s monthly dinner … only he has to bring along an idiot the others can make fun of.

He who produces the most awful guest wins and gains points on the going-places ladder.

The guest is Barry (Carell), whose hobby is stuffing dead mice and arranging them in domestic scenes.

Both Rudd and Carell are excellent actors – the latter is usually falling-down funny but here merely annoying - and while they do try to inject some humanity into an otherwise depressing concept they are never given the opportunity by a script that is weak and, frankly, disturbing.

Perhaps such dinners are held regularly in big business … bring an idiot banker!

Star Rating: 2/5