Review of My Dinner with Andre (1981) by Kenneth L — 22 Dec 2011

Wow, what a great and unusual movie this is. This will sound like an odd compliment, but one of my first reactions to this movie was to think, "Showing this movie would be a great way to begin a freshman English course." I could put it right alongside Barton Fink in the category of films I would love to see other people's (and especially students') reactions to.

Literally speaking, the movie is about just what the title says it is about: everybody's favorite T-Rex voice Wallace Shawn (playing himself) having dinner with his friend Andre Gregory (a theater director, also playing himself), and their conversation during the dinner. That may sound boring, but it's not: the first half or so of the film finds Andre telling wild stories about his experiences with a bunch of crazy, experimental theater people all over the world, and the second half of the film has a genuinely interesting and fairly in-depth philosophical conversation between the two men that relates to the first half. The stories Andre tells are just nuts: they're classic examples of 1970s looniness, and reminded me of the sorts of things Tom Wolfe was writing about in his essay "The Me Decade." The Platonic dialogue of the second half is really engrossing: I found myself thinking about all sorts of questions it raises, and tending to take Wallace Shawn's side on things. A lot of what Andre says does seem, especially now, like New-Age-y bullshit, but at least the spirit of his questioning of things seems genuine. And it's very easy to sympathize with Wallace Shawn's perspective while simultaneously seeing it objectively.

You can't really talk about the acting in this movie, per se, since there really are just the two guys, and they're pretty much playing themselves. Apparently the movie was based on real conversations they recorded, which Shawn then spent a whole year working into a screenplay. In any event, even if he's not really acting in the proper sense here, this movie has probably the biggest and best role Wallace Shawn ever got, and he's funny and likable here. Andre Gregory is a lot harder to relate to, just because of the sort of stuff he talks about, but he is a great storyteller, and even though the movie never leaves the restaurant, his storytelling ability helps keep it from ever being boring. The film was directed by French New-Waver Louis Malle, whose visual style is very simple and clean and just what the movie needs. You can actually tell that there is some elaborate planning of the shots going on because of the mirrors in the background and the action they reflect in the restaurant, but Malle doesn't point this out, and it's just there for you to notice if you like. Overall, I think this is a fascinating movie that works beautifully despite, or rather because of, its constrained nature. People who spend a lot of time reading and thinking about philosophy might find it a bit basic or amateurish in its discussion, but I think for the average person this could be a really thought-provoking film.

Plus, Wallace Shawn says "inconceivable" in it.