Steve Carell in 'Dinner for Schmucks'

Briefly and unexpectedly, there is brilliance in "Dinner for Schmucks," which opens with a pair of human hands arranging stuffed mice in elaborate little still lifes. We see two rodents begin a shy courtship, sipping from double straws in a wedge of Swiss, riding a tandem bike, strolling with paws in each other's back pockets. It's absolutely enchanting - we even see a pair of tiny wire spectacles being made.

Unfortunately, these are just the opening credits, and when they end they take all notions of care and craft with them.

The mice turn out to be the odd handiwork of a lovelorn taxidermist, Barry Speck (Steve Carell), who one day meets the moving Porsche of an ambitious financier, Tim Conrad (Paul Rudd). What luck: Tim's nasty boss is hosting a special dinner where the goal is to bring the most ridiculous guest. Barry looks like a winner.

After the usual mix-ups and property destruction, Tim will realize Barry's true worth, or so the movie tells us. The problem is that Barry really is, to use a non-Yiddish word, a twerp. Director Jay Roach ("Meet the Parents") never reins in Carell, who imbues his character with both cluelessness and arrogance - a lethal combination.

Based on a 1998 French comedy, "Dinner for Schmucks" does have a great supporting cast, including Zach Galifianakis as a deluded IRS agent and Jemaine Clement (HBO's "The Flight of the Conchords") as an oversexed artiste. But the real stars are the creators of those mice, the Chiodo brothers, a trio of puppeteers who also worked on "Team America: World Police." If you must go, stick around for the epilogue.

Look who's coming to 'Dinner'

Sacha Baron Cohen was originally going to play the Barry character in "Dinner for Schmucks," but he and the movie's producers couldn't see eye-to-eye on an approach to the story, so he removed himself from the project. The producers then turned to Carell, who was attracted to the script's mixture of schadenfreude and sympathy.

"I loved that it was something funny but also slightly bittersweet and melancholy," Carell says. He also liked that the Barry character followed in a tradition of classic comedic roles that incorporate subtle human tics.

"I'm a fan of Peter Sellers and Alan Arkin, character actors who can do things comedically without ever acknowledging to the audience they're doing anything funny," he says.

Carell would star with Paul Rudd, his "Anchorman" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" co-star. "I'm sure Sacha would have killed it," Rudd says. "But I loved the idea of doing it with Steve, whom I consider an actor, not just a comic. He'll sacrifice a joke if it isn't necessary to what's human and moving about a character."

- Los Angeles Times