Review of My Dinner with Andre (1981) by Robert T — 05 Jul 2011

Have you ever had a really long and meaningful conversation with a friend over dinner?

I don't know if I could answer that. Conversations blow by so quickly in movies and real life that one rarely gets to savor one for what it is and what it can mean for your life. That is one of the joys of movies written by folks like Quentin Tarrantino, who simply loves language. An even greater joy in the same thing comes from this brilliantly written film. This actually ends up feeling more like a play than a film. If it was either, I would call it brilliant.

It saddens me when I realized, while watching the film, that modern audiences simply may not have the patience for a film like this. The entire movie is ONE LONG SCENE. However, I would probably call this one of the most interesting and well-written scenes in cinema. At the beginning of the film, I felt strangely detached from the discussion, as the main character, Wallace Shawn (Himself), is just as cautious about getting invested with a dinner conversation with Andre Gregory (Also, himself), who he has avoided for years. But the dialogue here is structured so that at the beginning of the film, we get slowly intrigued by the stories Andre has, and toward the end we begin to be fascinated by his philosophy, and we begin to apply it to our own lives.

That itself is the crowning triumph of the movie; how universal the whole situation is. The dialogue is not trying to be high minded or overly philosophical. It simply is allowed the time by the director to wander and ponder nothing more inconsequential than the entirety of human existence.

Overall, I would recommend this film to anyone with patience and imagination! Two Thumbs way Up!