The Dinner (2017)

Directed by: Oren Moverman

Written by; Oren Moverman & Herman Koch (novel)

Starring: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, & Rebecca Hall




Paul (Coogan) begins the film by narrating his dislike for going to dinner with his brother, mostly due to his dislike of his brother, Stan (Gere), who is running for Governor.  Nevertheless, he decides to go to dinner with his wife.  The dinner seems like an awkward family affair, but really Stan wants to discuss the trouble that their sons have gotten themselves into.

I walked out after an hour.  Here's why:

1) Steve Coogan.  He is just not a relatable main character.  It was hard to like him and on the contrary, I disliked him.  The whole story was from his point of view, which made it difficult to follow.

2) Too many subject areas.  The film kept jumping around trying to find itself.  It would talk about the sons, then racism, then mental illness, and so on.  It's like pick a topic and stick with it.  I can't stand when they have multiple ones because the film then seems so disorganized and makes it difficult to follow and keep me interested.

3) Sound.  Usually in films, the actors' voices are the loudest and then other noises like footsteps or putting down fine china is in the background.  I don't know if it was the theater I was in or it was the sound mixing, but everything sounded loud from the voices to just clanking glasses.  It was so distracting.

4) Dissolves.  Because of all the different topics, whenever a new topic would come up there would be a dissolve.  It was annoying.

5) Pacing.  The film dragged also.  There were parts that could have been eliminated all together that would have saved time and money.

Perhaps the book is better.  Don't go see it.  1 Kernel.