journal features
movie reviews
photo of the day

movie review - The Dinner Game

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2003.12.28

This is one of my favourite silly comedies, and it's French. It's about two men who are about as different as it's possible to be. One is suave, sophisticated, vicious, dishonest and arrogant. The other is sincere, bumbling, and heartbroken.

The former invites the latter to a dinner party in which each guest brings an idiot to compete in an undeclared battle of idiocy. The latter is a shoe-in, a fellow whose every action seems to land someone in catastrophe. But there's a snag. The crooked inviter pulls a muscle on the golf course and becomes a shut in. Just as the idiot guest turns up, the crook's wife walks out on him. In a moment of desperation the crook turns to the idiot for help.

And things take a turn for the chaotic. This movie is a great laugh. This was my second viewing, and it's still: Recommended.

rand()m quote

Selfish leaders increase risk by placing themselves first. It's a fundamental mistake to assume that what is good for us personally is mutually exclusive to what is good for everyone. That kind of zero-sum game is for cowards, and in the end, we all pay the price for this type of latent, toxic leadership.

—Col. Eric G. Kail