Eulogy is a 2004 comedy film directed by Michael Clancy. The US release was a limited theatrical release.

Plot

After Edmund Collins dies, his granddaughter, Kate Collins, is tasked with giving the eulogy at his funeral. As the Collins family joins their widowed mother/grandmother, Charlotte Collins, the family's dysfunctions and idiosyncrasies come to light. Kate's father, Daniel Collins, is an "obscure foreign film" actor whose career peaked at age 8 when he appeared in a peanut butter commercial. Kate's uncle, Skip Collins, is an overly hormonal father of overly hormonal twin sons (Fred & Ted) who managed to run their mother out of their family. Kate's aunt, Lucy Collins, is a lesbian who has been verbally chastised since a younger age by Kate's other aunt, Alice Collins. The bossy, intimidating Alice has managed to both raise her three children and drive her husband into submissive silence, because of her persistent talking and badgering.

During the film, Kate continually tries to come up with a eulogy while dealing with a previous romance with Ryan from whom she ran away after being caught by Ryan's mother who came home while Ryan & Kate were having sex. Kate gets reacquainted with Ryan (after trying to dodge him several times around town) and their relationship reignites.

Tired of the family feuding, Charlotte tries to commit suicide by overdosing on a medication. After having her stomach pumped and after rejoining the family, she tries again by jumping out of a moving van on a bridge but is unsuccessful again.

Ultimately, per Edmund's will, he is placed in a casket and floated out on a local lake in a boat. Ted & Fred, having previously filled the casket with gasoline, start shooting fiery arrows from a bow at the casket. During this time Kate finally gives her eulogy. One of the arrows eventually hits the casket and a moment later the casket, completely unexpectedly, explodes in a fiery explosion and completely demolishes the boat, body, and casket in a splintery mess.

At Edmund's will reading, it is revealed that Edmund has three families that don't know about each other. This explains Edmund's inability to keep names and number of children straight over the years before also dropping the bomb that he was up to his "eyeballs in debt". Kate is tasked with finding and telling the other two families of Edmund's demise.

Cast

Actor	Role
Zooey Deschanel	Kate Collins
Hank Azaria	Daniel Collins
Piper Laurie	Charlotte Collins
Jesse Bradford	Ryan Carmichael
Glenne Headly	Samantha
Famke Janssen	Judy
Kelly Preston	Lucy Collins
Ray Romano	Skip Collins
Rip Torn	Edmund Collins
Debra Winger	Alice Collins
Curtis Garcia	Fred Collins
Keith Garcia	Ted Collins
Allisyn Ashley Arm	Collins Daughter

Trivia

Winona Ryder was originally slated to play the lead, but she dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, allowing Zooey Deschanel to play the role.

Rip Torn went on to play a recurring role as network chief Don Geiss on 30 Rock, who, like Torn's character in the film, has a secret second family in Canada.

External links