The Dinner Game
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Movie Reviews of The Dinner Game
Movie Review: Hilarious French Comedy
Summary: 5 Stars
If you enjoy French comedies, as I do, and if you enjoyed The Valet and The Closet, also written and directed by Francis Veber, you will surely enjoy this clever and well crafted comedy.
Pierre Brochant, an upper middle class French publisher, participates in a weekly dinner party with several of his buddies in which they each invite an, unknowing, idiot to dinner for their amusement. It's not unlike the "Ugly Girl" contest they enjoyed in college.
Brochant invites François Pignon (a character that also appears in other Veber comedies), a model builder that makes models of engineering structures like the Eiffel Tower and the Golden Gate Bridge out of matchsticks, as his dinner guest.
Prior to dinner, Brochant asks Pignon to his elegant Paris apartment to get to know him better before displaying him at the "idiots' dinner". Unfortunately, Pignon arrives just as Brochant's wife walks out on him. Having had a similar experience, Pignon can empathize and sincerely tries to help his new friend.
Being the idiot that he is, Pignon continues to make matters worse for Brochant by his continuous and hilarious bungling. Pignon proves that he truly is an idiot although always sincere and well intentioned.
Along the way Pignon learns the true reason he was invited to dinner and is deeply hurt. Despite his humiliation and anger, Pignon is able to rise to the occasion and help is non-friend by convincing Brochant's wife on the phone to return to her husband. For that moment, Pignon is the smart one and Brochant realizes that he is the real idiot. But, will Pignon blow it; watch and find out.
The Dinner Game is really an enjoyable movie and well worth seeing. I highly recommend it.
Movie Review: If you liked "The Closet," seek out this masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
If you liked Francis Verber's "The Closest" (featuring what can only be described as France's All-Star Acting Team), then you must seek out his serio-comic masterpiece "The Dinner Game." Verber adapted his self-penned play for the screen and had the good sense to cast the play's long-running star, Jacques Villeret, as his 'idiot' foil, François Pignon (interestingly carrying the same name as Verber's protagonist in "The Closet" but played there by Daniel Auteuil). Villeret - who passed away of a cerebral hemorrhage in January 2005 - was renowned in his homeland for this classic portrayal. No description here can do it justice.
Verber has a top-notch stable of actors that he uses in both films, most notably France's "leading leading man" Thierry Lhermitte (as Pierre Brochant) and the beautiful and classy Alexandra Vandernoot as his on-screen wife. As befits a screenplay adapted faithfully from a play, the action - well over 80% of it - takes place in one room (the living area of the Brochants' well-appointed apartment).
The title of the film (and play) is a bit of a head-fake. Due to unforeseen events, Brochant and Pignon never make it to the idiot dinner. Or, maybe they do. You be the judge.
Of special note here are the outstanding English sub-titles. The movie is filled with intricate and hilarious wordplay, the gist of which is that Pignon misunderstands the nuances of things and hilarity ensues. It's quite a feat to get that type of humor to translate across a language barrier, but the filmmakers and their distributors (helped immeasurably by Villeret's classic deadpan takes) have succeeded in spades.
Movie Review: Perfectly Hilarious!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this film at a Boston French Film festival. I didn't speak French at the time but even my friends who could were thankful for the subtitles because the crowd laughed so hard at certain points in the movie that you couldn't even hear the actors! I've seen this movie so many times that I don't even need the subtitles anymore because I have it all memorized. For subtitle-wary folks, this movie is well worth getting over that - My ex's 9 year old son used to beg us to watch it. Why? Because this is definitely one of the most exquisitely hilarious movies I have ever seen. It's not what one would reffer to as mindlessly funny or stupid/goofy funny, it's funny because of the intelligently subtle comic timing, great writing and direction, and the chemistry between the main characters. Lhermitte's ability to say so much with just a look will have viewers laughing throughout the movie. Pignon, the bumbling, well-meaning but oft disasterous character brings the movie to a level of hilarity that will make you laugh until you cry. (Not to give anything away, but the ending of a phone call that Pignon makes proves to be the biggest laugh in the movie and one that will go down in cimenatic history)They are supported by a cast with perfect comic timing and a well developed story with surprises. Given the limited locations (the movie is set almot entirely in Lhermitte's apartment) the movie holds your attention and keeps you laughing until the very end.Movie Review: A Modern French Comedy With Classical Throwback
Summary: 5 Stars
This comic masterpiece was as big a riot for me as it was in my first viewing some 7 years prior, and it does indeed recall the satire of Moliere. However, this time I started to find the cruelty in the premise gnawing a bit at my conscience. Perhaps it was the chance in a second viewing to study the characters more than the plot, whereby Monsieur Pignon appeared too affectionate and likeable to ridicule for sport. I might have even tweaked the ending to inflict the final comeuppance on Pierre Brochant with NO help from Pignon. Then I slapped myself in the face with a reminder that THIS IS AFTERALL JUST A FARCE, with Pignon in the end no less a fool than, say, Stan of "Laurel & Hardy" or Norton of "The Honeymooners". And no less so than previously, I found myself getting caught up in the sequence of comic errors that continued to build upon itself. The inclusion of Pignon's boss for collateral victimhood added an extra dimension to his role in that sequence. The most brilliantly crafted thread was the way Pierre's predicament was compounded with each acceptance of Pignon's helping hand! I'm putting aforementioned sensitivities aside in grading the movie for its content - a solid 5. But I do wonder how a Hollywood remake in these culturally sensitive times would tackle the premise - even in jest!
Movie Review: Must have in any collection
Summary: 5 Stars
I had heard about Le Diner de Cons and how massively successful it had been in France when I lived in London in 1999. I returned to London in 2002 for six months and while browsing through the local library DVD rentals I saw the movie available for rent and remembering the rave reviews it had gotten three years prior I decided to pick it up as a fan of European cinema. I am deprived of European cinema here in Trinidad, West Indies except for the annual European film festival as our cinemas are dominated by American fare. This movie turned out to be one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. I laughed until I cried. Five years later I have decided to buy the DVD to add to my collection. I had forgotten about it until I was watching 'Volver' and they had trailers for other movies including 'The Valet' which is also by the same director as Le Diner de Cons. Remembering how much joy it brought to me I ordered it and I have no regrets. After reading other reviews for this movie here I have to now get 'The Closet' as well. Le Diner de Cons is French farce at its very best and although my French has gone the way of the dodo with lack of practice it is still enjoyable for non-French speakers. I recommend like a beastly cold beer on a hot and sunny day!