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movie review - The Dinner Game

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

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.