The Dinner (2017 film)

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The Dinner
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Oren Moverman
Screenplay by	Oren Moverman
Based on	The Dinner by Herman Koch
Produced by	Caldecot Chubb Lawrence Inglee Julia Lebedev Eddie Vaisman
Starring	Richard Gere Laura Linney Steve Coogan Rebecca Hall
Cinematography	Bobby Bukowski
Edited by	Alex Hall
Music by	Elijah Brueggemann
Production companies	ChubbCo Film Code Red Blackbird
Distributed by	The Orchard (United States) Vertigo Releasing (United Kingdom)
Release dates	February 10, 2017 (2017-02-10) (Berlin) May 5, 2017 (2017-05-05) (United States)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2.5 million [1]

The Dinner is an 2017 American drama film directed and written by Oren Moverman, and 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 Dinner 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. Before dinner, Paul and Claire discuss their son Michael, who is closer to Claire than Paul. Paul and Stan appear to have a contentious relationship.

Stan, the front runner for Governor, is accompanied to dinner by his aides. They're there to keep him briefed on the votes needed for an important bill he's trying to push through the House about mental health, and they frequently interrupt his meal. Paul is annoyed by Stan and lets 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 (an adopted son) as they try to get home following a party. During the film—organized under chapter headings following the stages of the meal—the four discuss that incident involving their children.

At that incident, Rick, Michael, and Beau encounter a homeless woman trying to sleep in the ATM they try to enter to get money for a cab ride home. Michael verbally and physically harassed the woman, while Rick and Beau looked on. While taunting her, Michael dumps a garbage pail full of paper on her and then proceeds to dump other trash on her. After throwing near-empty cans of flammable material on her, Michael then throws lit matches on her sleeping bag, one of which caught fire and killed her. Michael, who is laughing as he watches the woman burn, records the event on his cell phone. Beau left the scene before this occurred but witnessed that this was an unprovoked attack.

Throughout the dinner, tensions build up 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 simply cover up their wrongdoing.

Another flashback shows that Claire's bout with cancer unhinged Paul. In the present day, Paul finds out that there's a video of the homeless woman's death online that Beau uploaded after he found it on Michael's computer. Michael 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 (which he thought he was keeping secret from her), Claire is colluding with Michael in a scheme to pay out thousands of dollars in hush money to Beau.

In another flashback, after Stan and his first wife offer to look after Michael while Claire is in the hospital, Paul becomes angry and hits him over the head with a saucepan. This explained the continuing mantra throughout the earlier parts of the movie where Paul keeps saying, "I asked him to close the door."

At the dinner, Stan says he wants to withdraw from the gubernatorial race and hold a press conference about the ATM incident, later 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.

Convinced that Stan and Kate are prepared to turn in both Michael and Rick, Claire and Paul discuss the need to take care of Beau. Paul admits that he has been off his medications for a few months; Claire admits she's known that, but never said anything because she wanted Paul back. She tells Paul that he needs to "take care" of Beau. When he asks her what she means, she says, after a moment's hesitation, that he needs to 'talk' with Beau, and convince him not to turn in their son. There is a subtext here: she knows he's off his meds, that he is unstable, and perhaps her talk of "taking care" of Beau is a way to get him to use violence to protect her son.

Paul, broken and unstable, leaves the restaurant for Stan's house looking for Beau, believing that the only solution to the problem is to kill him. Beau leaves the house to talk to Paul, who grabs him by the neck and prepares to hit Beau over the head with a rock to prevent him from turning in the other boys.

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 into Stan's aide that the votes needed for the mental health bill are secure. The film ends on an abrupt note as Paul refers to everyone as "apes with phones" and groans in pain. Although no one can reach Beau on his cell phone, Paul says he just was talking to him, and it's left to the audience to decide if he went through with his threat to kill Beau.

Cast[]

Oren Moverman (left) with cast of the film at Berlinale 2017

• Richard Gere as Stan Lohman, Katelyn's husband, Barbara's ex-husband, Paul's politician brother, Rick and Beau's 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 and Beau's 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
• 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
• as Beau Lohman, Rick's adopted brother, Stan and Barbara's adopted son and Paul and Claire's nephew
• as Anna, Michael's girlfriend.

Production[]

On September 19, 2013, it was announced that Cate Blanchett would make her directorial debut with a film adaptation of the Dutch thriller novel The Dinner, by Herman Koch, scripted by Oren Moverman. Caldecot Chubb produced under his ChubbCo Film banner, and Lawrence Inglee, and produced the film for Code Red, ChubbCo and Blackbird. Code Red fully financed the film and handled international sales.^[2] Olga Segura and executive produced, and helped with the development of the project.^[2]

Later, in January 2016, it was announced that Moverman would also direct the film.^[3] That same month, Charlie Plummer and Adepero Oduye joined the cast of the film.^[4][5]

Filming[]

Principal photography on the film began on January 21, 2016, in Dobbs Ferry, New York.^[6][7] Later, filming took place in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, including at the Gettysburg National Military Park.^[8]

Release[]

In May 2016, The Orchard acquired distribution rights to the film.^[9] The film had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2017,^[10][11] and went on to screen at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 24, 2017.^[12][13] The film was theatrically released on May 5, 2017.^[14]

Critical reception[]

The Dinner holds a 46% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 142 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. 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."^[15] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 57 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[16]

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."^[17] 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."^[18] 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."^[19]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Dinner.

• The Dinner at IMDb 
• The Dinner at AllMovie