REEL CRITIC:

“Death at a Funeral” is a black comedy, which means that it deals irreverently with a topic that most people think should be treated with respect.

In this movie, every topic is fair game for a joke, from death to funeral parlors, from Christianity to homosexuality, from little people to the elderly. But there’s something missing here, the one thing every movie should have. And that’s respect for the audience.

The fault lies, as always, with the script. Sure it has some very funny lines, some hilarious sight gags, some absolutely wonderful actors and an incredibly talented director. That’s enough to get the “It’s OK” rating, but it’s not enough to earn the “You gotta see this!” award.

Missing is any sense of originality. Been there. Done that. Saw it last week on my favorite sitcom rerun. The funniest parts of the movie belong to actor Alan Tudyk, outstanding as the sweet, dependable, insecure Simon, so nervous about meeting his girlfriend’s father that he takes what he thinks is a Valium. You guessed it. That’s not what’s really in the pill.

But the look on Simon’s face while staring at his naked wrist, yelling in anguish, “Where’s my watch?” only to gratefully find it a second later on his other wrist, is classic. It’s almost, but not quite, worth the price of a ticket. And in a few minutes — you guessed it — someone else finds the Valium bottle.

Just two years ago, actor Matthew MacFadyen was dreamily sideburned and heroically romantic as Mr. Darcy in “Pride and Prejudice.” This year, he is equally at home playing dull, weak, responsible, unimaginative brother Daniel, sadly without the sideburns. All of which goes to show that good actors can play anything and do anything, except improve a mediocre script.

Also missing from the screen is a single child actor in any of the funeral scenes, which means that director Frank Oz (whose “Bowfinger,” written by the amazingly multitalented Steve Martin, is one “you just gotta see”) was at least smart enough to keep kids off the R-rated set. Because when it comes to cheap jokes, nothing is cheaper than repeated use of the same four-letter words. And when it comes to an otherwise good story, getting an R rating because of bad language and bathroom humor, all of which could easily have been eliminated from the script before shooting began, nothing is more frustrating. As the dying actor once said, “Death is easy. Comedy is hard.” But it’s not impossible.

Writer Dean Craig is clearly someone with enough talent to learn from his mistakes.

His next movie will probably be something you gotta see.

But this time around, if you take out the dirty humor and the unoriginal plot lines, what’s left in this 90-minute film is 30 minutes of truly funny stuff.

And when was the last time your local movie theater offered you a 66% discount on your $10 ticket?

 MARY BURKIN of Burbank is an actress, a playwright, a lawyer and a Movie Mom, who left the kids home for this one.