The Dinner (2017 film)
The Dinner is an 2017 American drama film directed and written by Oren Moverman, based on the Dutch novel of the same name by Herman Koch. It is the third film adaptation of the novel, following the 2013 original Dutch version Het Diner by Menno Meyjes and the 2014 Italian film I nostri ragazzi by Ivano De Matteo. The film stars Richard Gere, Steve Coogan, Laura Linney, Rebecca Hall, Chloë Sevigny, Charlie Plummer, Miles J. Harvey and Adepero Oduye.
The film had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on February 10, 2017, and was theatrically released on May 5, 2017, by The Orchard.
Plot
On a snowy evening in Dobbs Ferry, history teacher Paul Lohman, his wife Claire, Paul's Congressman brother Stan, and Stan's wife Katelyn meet up for an organized dinner at a luxury restaurant that Stan has booked for the four of them. Paul and Claire are shown talking before dinner and it's clear they're close, and they discuss their son Michael, who is closer to Claire than Paul. Paul and Stan are painted to have a contentious relationship.Stan, the front runner for Governor, is accompanied to dinner by his personal aides. They're there to keep him briefed on the votes needed for an important bill he's trying to push through the House on the subject of mental health, and they frequently interrupt his meal. Paul is annoyed by Stan and takes every opportunity to let everyone know.
An incident is shown in flashbacks during the meal of Paul and Claire's son Michael and Stan and ex-wife Barbara's children Rick and Beau as they try to get home following a party.
It transpires during the course of the film—organized under chapter headings following the stages of the meal—that the four are there to discuss that incident involving their children.
At that incident, they encountered a homeless woman trying to sleep in the ATM they try to enter to get money for a cab home. Michael verbally and physically harassed her, while Rick and Beau looked on. While taunting her, Michael dumped a garbage pail full of paper on her, and threw lit matches on her sleeping bag, which caught fire and killed her. Beau left the scene before this occurred, but witnessed that this was an unprovoked attack.
Over the course of the dinner, tensions run amok among the group intercut with flashbacks that view the dysfunctional family's past, and Stan's attempts to help Paul in his depression. The arguments grow tense as they clash on whether the boys should take the blame or to simply cover up their wrongdoing.
In another flashback, it's shown that Claire's bout with cancer unhinged Paul. In present day, Paul finds out that there's a video of the woman's death online that Beau uploaded after he found it on Michael's computer. Michael even refuses to delete the video, causing a schism between him and his father. Paul also is shocked to find that not only does Claire know about the incident, Claire is colluding with Michael in a scheme to pay out thousands of dollars in hush money to Beau.
After Stan and his wife offer to look after Michael while Claire is in the hospital, Paul becomes angry and accidentally hits him over the head with a saucepan.
At the dinner, Stan makes it clear he wants to withdraw from the gubernatorial race and hold a press conference about the ATM incident, afterwards accompanying his son to the police. A bitter argument ensues between Stan on one side and Claire and Katelyn on the other, with Paul sitting quietly away from the table. Katelyn manages to persuade Stan to hold off on his plan.
Paul, broken and unstable, leaves the restaurant for Stan's house looking for Beau, believing that the solution to the problem is to kill Beau, and a violent confrontation ends with Paul threatening to hit Beau over the head with a rock.
However, Paul is confronted by an enraged Stan, frantically looking for Beau, alongside Katelyn and Claire. While Katelyn tries to phone Beau, a call comes in to Stan's aide that the votes needed for the mental health bill are secure. The film ends on an abrupt note as Paul collapses and croaks out "Mental health for everyone!" as the others move beside him in the snow.
Cast
- Richard Gere as Stan Lohman, Katelyn's husband, Barbara's ex-husband, Paul's politician brother, Rick and Beau's adoptive father and Michael’s uncle.
- Steve Coogan as Paul Lohman, Claire's husband, Michael's father, Stan's brother, Rick and Beau’s uncle and an ex-teacher of history in high school.
- Laura Linney as Claire Lohman, Paul's wife, Michael's mother and Rick and Beau’s aunt.
- Rebecca Hall as Katelyn Lohman, Stan's wife, Michael’s aunt and Rick's and Beau's stepmother.
- Chloë Sevigny as Barbara Lohman, Stan's ex-wife and Rick's mother and Beau's adoptive mother.
- Charlie Plummer as Michael Lohman, Stan and Katelyn’s nephew, Rick and Beau's cousin and the only son of Claire and Paul.
- Adepero Oduye as Nina, who works for Stan.
- Michael Chernus as Dylan Heinz.
- Taylor Rae Almonte as Kamryn Velez.
- Joel Bissonnette as Antonio.
- Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as Rick Lohman, Beau's brother, Stan and Barbara's son and Paul and Claire’s nephew.
- Miles J. Harvey as Beau Lohman, Rick's adopted brother, Stan and Barbara's adopted son and Paul and Claire’s nephew.
- Laura Hajek as Anna, Michael's girlfriend.
Production
Later, in January 2016, it was announced that Moverman would also direct the film. That same month, Charlie Plummer and Adepero Oduye joined the cast of the film.
Filming
on the film began on January 21, 2016, in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Later, filming took place in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, including at the Gettysburg National Military Park.Release
In May 2016, The Orchard acquired distribution rights to the film. The film had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2017, and went on to screen at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24, 2017. The film was theatrically released on May 5, 2017.Critical reception
The Dinner holds a 46% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 141 reviews, with an average rating of 5.43/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Dinner's strong ensemble isn't enough to overcome a screenplay that merely skims the surface of its source material's wit and insight." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 57 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".Owen Gleiberman of Variety gave the film a positive review, writing: "Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, and Rebecca Hall make a riveting quartet in Oren Moverman's adaptation of the Herman Koch novel about a dark-hearted dinner gathering." Eric Kohn of IndieWire also gave the film a positive review, writing: "The Dinner mostly works so long as it stays at the table, and the unresolvable source of anxiety in play suggests that on some level, the meal never ends." Boyd van Hoeij of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review, writing: "By trying to keep the prolonged sit-down affair from becoming excessively stagey, Moverman adds too many distracting flashbacks to maintain the original's hard-hitting and well-aimed gut punch."