The Dinner
Directed by: Oren Moverman
Written by: Oren Moverman - Based on the novel by Herman Koch
Starring: Steve Coogan, Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Rebecca Hall, Charlie Plummer, Adepero Oduye, Michael Chernus, Chloë Sevigny, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Miles J. Harvey, Onika Day
Drama/Mystery/Thriller - 120 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 1 May 2017
Written by: Oren Moverman - Based on the novel by Herman Koch
Starring: Steve Coogan, Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Rebecca Hall, Charlie Plummer, Adepero Oduye, Michael Chernus, Chloë Sevigny, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Miles J. Harvey, Onika Day
Drama/Mystery/Thriller - 120 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 1 May 2017
A powerhouse cast, a story based on a bestselling novel, and the whole thing set over one of the most pretentious, but gorgeous, dinners ever laid out on a cinematic table. Now lower your expectations and start scratching your head because The Dinner is none too palatable for the discerning cineaste. Oren Moverman’s version of Dutch writer Herman Koch’s 2009 cultural tidal wave of a novel is the third time a filmmaker tackles the story for theaters, this time for American audiences to consume. I appreciate the central quandary: where does the parental instinct to protect stop and the moral instinct to do the right thing kick in? However, there is an unreliable narrator thrown into the stew, a perplexing Gettysburg metaphor jammed into the narrative, and the gut-churning vileness a pair of empathy-deprived teenagers are capable of.
Two couples are to meet up at an impossibly posh restaurant to lay it all out on the table. I cannot imagine a more inappropriate place for their discussion to occur. Why inflict your trauma on the rest of the patrons and the suffering wait staff you’re about to torture? The men are brothers, the wives hoist their own agendas, and their sons are friends. By the end, you will not identify with any of the characters; they leave you cold and disturbed to the evening’s events and you will be more than ready to wash your hands of the whole nauseating endeavor.
Two couples are to meet up at an impossibly posh restaurant to lay it all out on the table. I cannot imagine a more inappropriate place for their discussion to occur. Why inflict your trauma on the rest of the patrons and the suffering wait staff you’re about to torture? The men are brothers, the wives hoist their own agendas, and their sons are friends. By the end, you will not identify with any of the characters; they leave you cold and disturbed to the evening’s events and you will be more than ready to wash your hands of the whole nauseating endeavor.
Paul (Steve Coogan, The Secret Life of Pets, playing an American), appears uncomfortable in his skin. He paces his house composing what sounds like an American history lecture in his head. He creeps behind his wife as she readies herself in front of the makeup mirror. He prowls on his son’s floor of the house as if in detective inspector mode because one and one are not equalling two in Paul’s world. The audience quickly learns Paul is our way into the story, its main character, but something is off with the former high school history teacher. We can’t put our finger on it until later courses, but keep your eye on this guy.
Paul makes terrible puns at the waiter who hovers with astonishment at the man overtly out of place in the restaurant. He rants about the price of champagne calling it an act of war. He’s obnoxious to the point of hostility; certainly not a companion you want to enjoy what must be a thousand dollar dinner with. Enter Stan (Richard Gere, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). Stan is a recognizable Congressman in full campaign mode running for Governor. Stan schmoozes the entire room as he slowly zig-zags his way to the table and immediately requests another table kicking out its current occupants. He reminds me of Edward Lewis, his billionaire Pretty Woman character, where his oft-repeated mantra was “Because it’s the best.”
The dinner party guests spend far more time away from the dinner table than at it. Stan’s wife, Katelyn (Rebecca Hall, Christine), runs off to the powder room on the verge of tears. Paul’s wife, Claire (Laura Linney, Nocturnal Animals), attempts to play peacemaker, smiles, and does her best to pretend we’re all friends here. Paul’s inner monologue accompanies us and screen adaptor Oren Moverman lets it hang clearly in the air this is lifted from a novel. Paul is speaking to us just as his narrator would in the book. Moverman made a conscious choice not to stiff arm the source material, but it feels odd. He may be copying Gone Girl after seeing how well Gillian Flynn’s narrator spoke directly to us, but nothing about The Dinner rises to the peculiar heights of that thundering blockbuster.
As we observe and eavesdrop on the dinner conversation, we are looking at people rationalize their way out of doing the right thing. Their two sons did something unimaginable. If the parents and kids play their cards right, everyone just might escape with the world being none the wiser. But what message does that send to the boys? Also, will all four parents be able to sleep soundly tonight? Each dinner guest brings their pasts and biases with them to the table and it alters their thinking and their opinions about the kids’ motivations. Moverman gives us a few flashbacks, mostly centered on Paul and for some reason, the Gettysburg battlefield memorial, to the neglect of the other three. Rumor has it Herman Koch hates this film and considers it by far the worst of the three adaptations. I have not read the novel, but apparently Moverman changes central themes. Since the novel sold over a million copies throughout Europe, I’ll err toward the familiar platitude that the book is better than the film.
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