The Dinner

I'll have to read the novel. Seems like it could have been a good movie in other hands, but Moverman's direction is tonally unsteady and overly busy. Stop zooming in during two-shots to make conversations seem more urgent. Trust the actors and screenplay. Relax.

Ok, it's a big enough downer without the obnoxious tangents. But the BS ending alone, which drew the most audible gasps I can remember for rolling the credits, is putting the silver screens of multiplexes around the world in serious jeopardy.

A movie that desperately wants to be annoying. It succeeds in a way it didn't bargain for. Steve Coogan's character could be the worst in recent movie history.

Two hours of watching miserable people due miserable things. Nuance is out the door when talking about mental health, as Coogan goes to 11.

It meanders. The film mixes in the courses being delivered and other segues, the flashbacks sometimes feel random... It works for a while, but as I said eventually we've lingered too.long and the magic is broken. There's definitely directorial skill involved, the film looks good, the 4 people talking at the table are shot and edited well enough that you're never jolted out of the movie, it's occasionally even pretty, but he just didn't know when enough was enough

There is a large disparity between the internal lives and backstories of these characters and the melodramatic plot, the point of which the film stumbles upon through inelegant flashbacks in a clumsy attempt at suspense. There's just no organic relevance between its dual themes of mental illness and political scandal. It strains so hard for seriousness that it becomes cloying and awkward, and Coogan is just plain bad.

A well acted, mostly crappy movie with an asinine non-ending. The first half is a boring slog. Then they slowly begin to reveal the reason for the dinner. The backstory is dribbled out in bits and pieces, but eventually paints a horrific situation. They are each forced to balance their morality against family loyalties and personal ambitions. There is a lot of chaos in the delivery. It was hard to like any of the characters. Overall, I am disappointed and unimpressed.

Gere is again fantastic but the movie is strangely not working as a whole.

bad movie

Despite strong performances from Gere, Hall, Linney, and Coogan, The Dinner is underwhelming at best. Not having read the book I can't comment on the adaptation, but Moverman's direction and screenplay are atrocious. The film is littered with tangential segue-ways supposedly to aid in char. dev., but instead only diminishing any semblance of a thrilling tone that the film needed. The open ending fails as the plot was diffuse and weakly constructed. Cut 40 minutes and this could have been great.

They managed to ruin a great book. It's chaotic and boring adaptation, mediocre performances, bad directing and only a few good moments here and there which doesn't save the film at all. Some writers should not be filmed, they should not be touched and Herman Koch is one of them!