Dinner for Schmucks (2010)

This is an imperfect-but-creditable movie. Tim (Paul Rudd) is in a business meeting when he announces a plan to manage the portfolio of a wealthy Swiss couple. Tim’s boss tells him that before he can be promoted, he will have to bring a guest to a special dinner where useless talent is mocked. When he accidentally hits IRS agent Barry (Steve Carrell), who creates dioramas of stuffed mice, Tim realizes he has the perfect candidate for the dinner. Unfortunately for Tim, his girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak) thinks this is a really mean idea so he has to lie to her about it, and Barry keeps creating havoc for him.

I get really irritated when you tell someone to stop doing something, but they continue to do so. The story is based on the 1998 French film Le dîner de cons (the dinner of dolts). Steve Carell and Paul Rudd also appeared together in Anchorman (2004) and The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005). The location for the dinner was taken from Wayne Manor in the Batman television series of the 1960s. Schmuck basically means jerk, but a more appropriate word might have been schlemiel which refers to an inept person.