Review of The Dinner (2017) by Kristofer H — 04 May 2017

Proper Perspective: Welcome to the worst narrative live action depiction of the game Clue ever put to screen. Imagine watching four people start to talk about a mystery, then cut to something that absolutely does not matter to the main story or mystery. I've never read this book, so maybe there is a better story in there somewhere. Let's talk about The Dinner...

Official Synopsis: Two sets of wealthy parents meet for dinner to decide what to do about a crime their sons have committed.

Plot: Two brothers and their wives meet for dinner under the guise to discuss a crime their kids commit, then through a series of flashbacks and parallel stories they finally talk about it for about five minutes in the last 15 minutes of the movie. Sorry, but that is more accurate.

(About midway through the movie a group of five people just left, shaking their heads and angry. A couple people fell asleep. Everyone was sighing and grunting. Just some context.).

Take: There were two intriguing elements of this movie. The crime that the kids committed and the direction each parent wanted to take in the aftermath was tangible and interesting. Each parent had a different reaction and motives; Richard Gere wanted to take responsibility, Steve Coogan was silent, Laura Linney only wanted to protect her son, and Rebecca Hall had her self interest in mind.

Everyone reacted in ways that were realistic and would be a version of how you or I would react in this scenario.

The other good thing was the character and performances of Richard Gere, Rebecca Hall, and a few of the side characters. Initially the two characters seemed to be going one way and then as the story progressed (in the last 15min) their true intentions were revealed.

There was some depth and character development.

That is a wrap for the positives. Steve Coogan is a fine enough actor, I've liked him in things like Tropic Thunder and really liked Hamlet 2, but he was severely miscast in this role. In fact almost everyone was miscast in this movie outside of Gere and Hall. The acting was weird and it felt like every character was in a short movie about something else. Gere and Hall were in a story about a politician with family drama, Coogan was auditioning for Identity, Linney was in a thriller about a mom protecting her son in a weird kind of gross way, and the kids were in an R-rated version of Goonies. Everything about this movie was off kilter and out of balance.

Which leads me to the biggest issue with this movie outside of story: The direction and pacing were just dreadful. I try to see the positives in things, but there was nothing positive about this movie.

Oren Moverman wrote and directed this movie based on a Herman Koch novel. This movie is especially bad when you consider the fact that Moverman wrote Love & Mercy, Time Out of Mind, The Messenger, and I'm Not There. All quality movies and he directed The Messenger and Time Out of Mind. Nothing clicked with The Dinner. Nothing at all.

Recommendation: I think The Dinner subplants Rings as the worst movie of 2017 through May 4th at least. I have not seen all the movies, but of the 50 I have seen in theaters this is far and away the worst. Do not go near this with someone you hates 10 foot pole attached to your 10 foot poll...

As the movie faded to black a lady stood up and yelled, "Did I miss something?" A guy replied, "I think we all did (laughs)" Not a good sign movie.