THE DINNER GAME (LE DINER DE CONS)
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Lions Gate Films Director: Francis Veber Writer: Francis Veber Cast: Catherine Frot, Francis Huster, Thierry Lhermitte, Daniel Prevost, Alexandra, Vandernoot, Jacques Villeret
Back in the Jurassic Age when I attended college, some fraternities held a yearly event known as The Pig Party. Each member of the House would invite the worst-looking date he could find. A prize would be awarded to the guy with homeliest companion who--if the gods were feeling good that evening--would never find out what the prize was for. The Pig Party, it turns out, was not exclusively an American invention. Professor Sorbier (Christian Pereira), a chiropractor in the French comedy "The Dinner Game," relates how in his own time the college men would pull the same gag. Hopefully in this time of political correctness, such shenanigans no longer exist. That's probably asking too much. Witness, for example, the practical jokes of the rich sickos in Francis Veber's "The Dinner Game," which is known in French as "Le diner de cons" ("The game for idiots").
Several times each year, the country club set in North Paris would hold dinners. Each associate would invite a person to this exclusive affair--the guy who he feels is the most idiotic person he's met. At the end of the repast, the fellow with the biggest dimwit would win the unending respect of his colleagues. Sound like fun? In any case, writer- director Francis Veber--on the writing team for such past hits as "La Cage aux Folles" (remade for Americans as "The Birdcage") and "The Tall Blonde Man With One Black Shoe"-- thought such an event would be a good subject for a play. Out came his stage work, which he quickly adapted for the screen.
This is a comedy that may have gone over with a French- speaking audience but to Americans it's going to seem awfully predictable, obvious, and hemmed in as a photographed play. The action takes part essentially in a single location, generally a mistake unless the director will go in for flashbacks and fancy cinematic techniques to widen the scope for the film medium. No such luck in this case. Though "The Dinner Game" has elements of farce (mistaken identity, near collisions of people who should not meet), the great French farceur, Georges Feydeau, has nothing to fear from its competition.
While the film opens in a park as one candidate for the idiot's game plays with his boomerang, Veber quickly shifts to the luxurious apartment of his principal character, Pierre Brochant (Thierry Lhermitte), a publisher who is introduced to a man described as the perfect idiot guest, Francois Pignon (Jacques Villeret). Since Brochant had just hurt his back, the dinner is postponed, leaving the Brochant and Pignon to converse in the living room. When Brochant receives a message on his answering machine from his depressed wife Christine (Alexandra Vandernoot) who has decided to leave him, the wheels begin spinning as the so-called idiot, Pignon- -who had suffered a similar fate two years previously--feels sorry for his host and seeks in his own inept way to patch up the adversity.
Others arrive at Brochant's apartment, serving to make matters worse--including Brochant's friend and competitor for his wife's affection, Just Leblanc (Francis Huster); a tax auditor, Cheval (Daniel Prevost); and a woman with whom Brochant has been having an affair, Marlene (Catherine Frot). The conversation turns on predictable jerk-jokes and some frantic mugging for the camera.
In one of the dialogues, Brochant orders Pignon to call a friend, Just Leblanc. Pignon wonders, "Doesn't "just" Leblanc have a first name?" "Yes, he's Just Leblanc," replies the host. If this sort of "Who's on first" humor is your glass of Dubonnet, then go for it. After all, quite a few French- speaking moviegoers rave on the web with comments like "It's funny, well acted and the tempo is perfect" (from a Montreal resident) and from Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Canada, one Mario Bergeron bubbles over: "One of the funniest movies of all time." Maybe Mario ought to get out more often.
Not Rated. Running Time: 82 minutes. (C) 1999 Harvey Karten
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