Eulogy (2004)

Director:

Michael Clancy

Writer (WGA):

Michael Clancy (written by)

Release Date:

24 February 2005 (Australia)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Last rites. Last words. Last laughs.

Plot:

A black comedy that follows three generations of a family, who come together for the funeral of the patriarch - unveiling a litany of family secrets and covert relationships.

Plot Keywords:

Twins | Dysfunctional Family | Eulogy | Funeral | Video Store

Cast

Hank Azaria	...	Daniel Collins
Jesse Bradford	...	Ryan Carmichael
Zooey Deschanel	...	Kate Collins
Glenne Headly	...	Samantha
Famke Janssen	...	Judy Arnolds
Piper Laurie	...	Charlotte Collins
Kelly Preston	...	Lucy Collins
Ray Romano	...	Skip Collins
Rip Torn	...	Edmund Collins
Debra Winger	...	Alice Collins
Micole Mercurio	...	Delilah the Neighbor
Lucy Boyle	...	Girl in Dorm Room
Tania Gunadi	...	Girl in Dorm Room
Kevin Ruf	...	Commercial Dad
Alex Moore	...	Young Daniel

MPAA:

Rated R for for language, sexual content and drug use.

Runtime:

91 min | Canada:85 min (Ontario)

Country:

USA | UK | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15 | Iceland:LH | Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Netherlands:12 | Australia:M | Singapore:M18 | USA:R (certificate #38723)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Eulogy Productions LLC

Trivia:

When Skip's sons pester Judy, the book she is reading is "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the man in the office is about to show the father's last will and testament video, instead of turning on the TV, he actually turns it off. The camera then cuts to the father's video, but the TV is on.

Quotes:

Lucy Collins: What're you laughing at?
Ted Collins: I don't know.
Fred Collins: But I can't wait to find out what you two vageniuses are up to.
Judy: What did you just say?
Ted Collins: Lez vocab word!
Lucy Collins: [to Judy] What did he just call us?
Judy: Vageniuses.
Fred Collins: It's a compound compliment.

Movie Connections:

References The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack (2000)

Soundtrack:

Walk on Water

The Flick Filosopher

We've seen this kind of thing before -- The Dysfunctional Family Get-Together, Black-Comedy Division -- but this one has a cast to die for and a bitter poignancy that imparts the sly and frequently mean-spirited wit with genuine feeling. Edmund Collins (Rip Torn: Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) has died, leaving behind a suicidal widow (Piper Laurie: The Faculty), a handful of neurotic offspring, and their spouses and kids, most of whom have had the Collins craziness rub off on them in the worst possible way. Only college student Kate (the luminous and sharp-edged Zooey Deschanel: Elf) has her head on straight, but even that won't help her write Grandpa's eulogy when no one has a kind word to say about him. Sure, this is one of those thank-god-your-own-family-ain't-this-bad movies, but I dare you not to find yourself really kind of wishing you could hang out with Hank Azaria's (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) Daniel, a washed-up former child star (and Kate's dad), and Famke Janssen's (X2: X-Men United) Judy, lesbian lover to Collins daughter Lucy (Kelly Preston: The Cat in the Hat), who delights in tweaking her future sister-in-law Alice's (a deliciously disturbed Debra Winger: Radio) homophobia. And Glenne Headly is always a treat, here as an old family friend who finds herself putting out emotional fires... and restarting an old one. Writer/director Michael Clancy makes a promising debut here, adroitly juggling diverse, expansive characters, and not only does he never let them descend into the cartoonish, he gets us to really care about them, psychoses and all.