Dinner for Schmucks

Dinner for Schmucks (also known as Dinner with Schmucks) is a 2010 American comedy film directed by Jay Roach. The film is the American adaptation of the 1998 French comedy Le Dîner de Cons and was written by David Guion and Michael Handelman. It stars Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, who had previously teamed up in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. The film was released theatrically on July 30, 2010.

Zach Galifianakis won the Comedy Award for "Best Comedy Actor – Film" for his role as Therman Murch in the film. The elaborate mouse dioramas and "mouseterpieces" were created by The Chiodo Brothers.

Plot summary

Tim Conrad (Paul Rudd) is a mid-level financial executive, who comes up with a way (via special novelty lamps) to invite wealthy Swiss businessman Martin Mueller (David Walliams) to become a client of his firm. Impressed by Tim's ingenuity, his boss Lance Fender (Bruce Greenwood) invites him to a "dinner for winners" in which he must find and bring an eccentric person with a special talent; the winner earns a trophy and the executive that brought him or her gets glory. He soon learns it is more of a "dinner for idiots", and the partygoers will be mocked mercilessly. Meanwhile, Tim's girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak) lands a curator deal for eccentric artist Kieran Vollard (Jemaine Clement), and Tim unsuccessfully proposes to her, as he has done several times before. After learning of the cruel nature of the dinner party, Julie becomes upset and asks him not to attend and he agrees.