You have to love Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. They are two of the easiest stars to watch on the big screen, each exuding a casual charm and niceness. While Dinner for Schmucks isn’t their best and funniest collaboration, it is a genial, amusing comedy, wrapped around a gooey, moral center. There aren’t too many uproarious laughs to be had, but the film will keep you smiling and giggling the whole way through. 

The premise is fairly simple. Tim (Rudd) is up for a promotion, but there is a catch. It seems that once a month, his wealthy boss hosts a “dinner for winners” in which all of the top executives of the company must invite a “talented” guest to bring with them. By talented, he means idiotic and if Tim brings the biggest moron to the proceedings, he will get the plush office on the seventh floor he’s been coveting. Tim realizes how messed up this is, but feels he has to participate in order to land the promotion, impress his girlfriend and get her to agree to marry him. No sooner than you can say the word schmuck, Tim hits Barry (Carell) with his car and finds the perfect guest to impress his boss. Barry is a really nice, very stupid man who in his eagerness to please his new friend becomes a one man wrecking ball, systematically destroying Tim’s life. I don’t want to ruin anything, but Tim’s car and apartment are destroyed, he loses his girlfriend and is found by his crazy, one night stand stalker all due to Barry trying to “help” him. 

As I said, the movie never achieves hysterical, belly laughs, but watching Barry innocently ruin Tim’s life is still fun to watch. The dynamic of the characters actually reminded me of What About Bob? with Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss. 

Rudd is a brilliant comic, straight man and his chemistry with Carell is terrific. He exudes nice guy charm and his reactions to the lunacy that is going on around him are priceless. No actor excels at mining the comic gold out of uncomfortable situations like he does. 

What can I say about Steve Carell? As always, he is a joy to watch and effortlessly plays a buffoon with a heart of gold. To say that Barry is the dumbest person he has ever played is an understatement. He makes Carell’s Michael Scott look like a NASA level genius. The incredible part is that Carell manages to exude a sweet innocence playing such a dummy. Truly fantastic.  Schmucks also boasts great performances from its supporting cast; the standouts being Zack Galifianakis as Barry’s deranged boss and Jemaine Clement as a rock star like artist. 

Of course by the end of the film, Tim learns that making fun of others at the service for yourself is too high a price to pay. His boss and executive cronies all get their comeuppance and Barry and Tim become real friends. In the hands of a different director, this could’ve become overly schmaltzy, but Jay Roach does a great job of balancing the humor with the heartfelt emotions just as he did with the first two Meet the Parents movies. He has a great skill with actors and always brings out their best work. 

To sum it up, Dinner for Schmucks is an engaging little comedy that will keep you entertained the whole way through. It’s not the funniest movie you’ll ever see, but it is definitely worth a peek.