The Pallbearer (1996)

It's actually not to bad, different story line, all around mistaken Identity
A little far fetched, and based around some dishonesty, but not bad. I guess I have more of a concience and would have said something up front than drag it out as Tom thompsen (David Schimmer) did, but at first I can understand him being polite in a time of grief. The main storyline of this film is Tom is asked to be a pallbearer at a high school classmates funeral. Unfortunately, Tom nor any of his friends can remember this guy. Along the way, another high school aquaintence (gwenith paltrow) come into the film as Tom's dream girl. As tom persues his dream woman, he soon finds himself entangled in wierd situation with the mother of the poor departed. The movie takes off there. I don't think this movie was ever ment to be a laugh out loud comedy, but it has some funny moments and serious ones as well. I actually enjoyed it, and I don't really care for David schwimmer, and I hate the show friends. So check it out, not to shabby.

Stagnant humor and uninspired, heavy-handed direction
This is one of those movies which simply blows away a good promise after the first half-hour...

I just did not get it. The movie is directed almost completely avoid of any intention of creating humor, even in the scenes clearly written to be funny!!

God awful
This movie just couldn't decide what it wanted to be, whether a comedy, drama, or romance. At just little over an hour & a half, it felt overly long, and dragged. When plied with alcohol, I can easily fall asleep during a particularly dull movie, but I was tired as it was after having not slept well the previous night, and kept having to eat something to keep me awake during this. I never noticed it as much during Friends, but David Schwimmer has one expression and that's the irritating hangdog expression. The whole film felt like the way you feel when you're in a rush, and people are (deliberately) getting in your way, or just coming to a dead stop, and leave you walking off, muttering to yourself. The Pallbearer tries to put a different spin on a romantic comedy and fails miserably.

This film's one saving grace is the actress playing Schwimmer's mum, who's never given the decency of a name, just credited by "Tom's mother". She was in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen as Miss Baggoli, although she looked like the mum from Carrie 2 as well. She wasn't on screen apart from a couple of scenes, and she was hilarious, especially in one of her early scenes, when she opens the door to her son's room and finds one of those security chains blocking her way. The look on her face is fantastic, including her line: "What's this friggin' chain for?"

Apart from her, this film belongs on really late night TV, where no-one will ever see it.