Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend an advanced screening for Dinner for Schmucks and what a fun screening it was!

“Dinner for Schmucks” tells the story of Tim (Paul Rudd), a guy on the verge of having it all. The only thing standing between him and total career success is finding the perfect guest to bring to his boss’ annual Dinner for Extraordinary People, an event where the winner of the evening brings the most eccentric character as his guest. Enter Barry (Steve Carell), a guy with a passion for dressing mice up in tiny outfits to recreate great works of art. From Jay Roach, director of “Meet the Parents” and “Meet the Fockers” comes an unforgettable feast about two unlikely friends and one very memorable dinner.

Starring: Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Zach Galifianakis, Jemaine Clement, Jeff Dunham, Bruce Greenwood, Ron Livingston, Stephanie Szostak, and Lucy Davenport

As a big fan of Steve Carell, I already knew that I would enjoy this film. But I didn’t anticipate that the supporting cast would bring just as much laugh out loud comedy as Carrell. Everyone really held their own in this film in their own unique way, which made for an incredibly interesting lead up to the infamous dinner…the dinner where the top executives at Tim’s (Paul Rudd) job invite talented and yet incredibly odd people to dinner to secretly make fun of them. In Tim’s attempt to get promoted to the seventh floor, he gets invited to this secret monthly dinner. He intends to go, despite his girlfriend’s request not to go. Tim’s search for the right idiot to bring to the dinner doesn’t take long, since he bumps into Barry (Steve Carell). The level of comedy immediately rises when Carrell comes into the picture.

Though the title of the film is called, “Dinner for Schmucks,” only the near end of the film actually takes place at dinner. The dinner scene is entertaining, pathetic, and heartwarming all at the same time. There are some equally outrageous moments that lead up to this dinner. Tim is stuck with Barry as his company an entire night earlier than planned and the chaos ensues. Barry is a great guy. He means well but he goes about doing the right thing the wrong way. On top of that, he doesn’t know how to have civilized fun. So he’s like a wild monkey who becomes fascinated by what becomes the running joke…that “everything happens for a reason.” Then there’s Tim’s girlfriend, Julie (Stephanie Szostak) who in Tim’s mind is his future fiancee. Unfortunately Tim has a past stalker who creeps back into his life and Julie has her own admirer, Kieran (Jemaine Clement) whom she works with! There’s so much to mention and yet so much I do not want to spoil! To put it in a nutshell, things go from bad to worse but brain control saves the day. Yes, brain control.

Going back to the cast though…while I understand what is called for in the relationship between Tim and Barry…had Steve Carrell not been a lead, I don’t believe this film would be as entertaining and would have caught my interest. When I see Paul Rudd, I see dry humor, not laugh out loud blockbuster comedy. So he carries his weight but in a dry way. While there’s nothing wrong with dry humor, it’s not worth paying $12 for in the summer. Summer is for laugh out loud comedy and action period. I think Zach Galifianakis and Jemaine Clement made up for the laugh out loud comedy where Rudd fell flat. So that made things okay. As for the writing, this screenplay was very well written, the dialogue was snappy, witty, just right. I can definitely see why this screenplay was bought. There is a solid story to be told and it’s also quite silly, stupid, and funny. So if you enjoy slapstick comedy with a great story, with characters to care about, this is the perfect comedy to see this summer.

Dinner for Schmucks releases in theaters July 30, 2010.