Dinner for Schmucks: Morality in Movies

“That’s a curse word.”

My Christian friend and junior high school classmate scolded me  for using the inappropriate word–schmuck.  I had assumed it was another way to say “jerk,” but my companion corrected me.  I waited for him to smile and add the punchline, “schmuck,” but the seriousness of his expression allowed no mistake. Iron was sharpening iron.

Having attended a Christian school from kindergarten through college, I spent a lot of time avoiding words perceived as coming from the gutter.  Sometimes this still affects me, which is why I felt slightly uncomfortable when I said “Two for Dinner for Schmucks.”  The girl seemed unimpressed as she handed my wife and me our movie tickets, and we left Christian-school-me behind.  He would catch up with us us later to interrupt  the movie.

This may count as a spoiler, but the word “schmuck” doesn’t occur in Dinner for Schmucks, unless you count the title.  A few universally accepted naughty words do, along with a generous amount that are not curses, but my upbringing told me might as well be.  After all, if you would feel strange hearing it in church, it’s probably bad.  Much could also be said about the crude, sexual nature of the humor, not excluding a cellphone down the pants.  Yet, another voice kept telling me, in spite of a character being forced to speak to another’s crotch, there’s something Christian about this movie’s message.  I agreed as I remembered one of my first jobs and the crisis of conscience that ensued.

The Dinner in the title refers to one thrown by businessmen to humiliate idiots.  The cruelty is noted by all except the businessmen who don’t care about anything but manners used when addressing them directly.  Steve Carrel plays the lead schmuck, Barry Speck, who the other lead, Tim Conrad, played by Paul Rudd, considers bringing to the dinner.  Carrel and Rudd make it clear that Barry is not only a schmuck, but also socially inept and completely clueless.  Every new decision Speck’s schmuck makes causes Conrad to reconsider bringing him to the dinner to be humiliated.  Along with graphic word choices, I noticed Steve Carrel’s rare comic ability to play schmucks that are not just pitiful, but somehow likable.  Rudd’s portrayal of the main character’s struggle between being a decent person and earning enough power and money to win the respect of  his peers and girlfriend is nothing new.  The great moral strength of the movie is the likability given to people who at first glance don’t seem to deserve it.  Rudd’s character in particular resonated more with me as my thoughts brought me back to similar struggles of my own.

The feeling reminded me of working for less than honest companies with fellow Christians.  The words we used or jokes we told were highly scrutinized, for the sake of our testimonies with unsaved co- workers, along with what movies to avoid.  We overlooked the fact that where we worked took advantage of people who didn’t have much and weren’t good at holding onto what they had.  Since they weren’t good with money, one could argue they didn’t deserve it or would probably spend it somewhere else.  It was easier, at first, to avoid pitying someone who dug their own hole.  Still, like the man considering inviting a schmuck to a party to be humiliated, I was conflicted.

I eventually quit, and I’m not saying I didn’t have a choice to work there in the first place, but it would have been better if I wasn’t alone, like the only poor schmuck who didn’t get it.

In the end of the movie we learn something from the schmucks.  I say this with zero fear of being attacked for sharing spoilers, because it’s not a spoiler.  We’ve all heard that story before.  But what I considered when I saw the two lead performances, that even the least likable and sympathetic among us are more human than we care to admit, helped me to appreciate the movie as a little more than just another profane comedy.  I’m not saying the message of loving your neighbor is new or that this film is a flawless work of art, but it’s more moral than many Christan viewers will give it credit for, who like me will wonder how you can say that in a PG-13 movie. This is a shame and makes me wonder how many times we miss it.