Richard Gere had one expression and broods through the entire film. Laura Linney's character was completely devoted to a completely unlovable character. None of the relationships seemed believable. There could have been a big payoff with any number of exquisite conclusions to this film, but the ending to this film was singularly & almost devastatingly unsatisfying.

I watch a lot of movies so I can understand, appreciate, and even enjoy open endings that still leave a lot of questions. However, this movie had a clear resolution it was approaching and yet, even though the movie is 2 hours long, it seemingly arbitrarily stops at the end of the second act, completely leaving out the 3rd act.

The rest of the movie was well made except for a few flash back moments that dragged on way too long and for no good reason. I was engaged and wanting to see the answer to the central question, but the ending was so bad I came away physically angry feeling like I just wasted 2 hours. I will note I made this review the day after so I could meditate on the movie and be in a calm emotional state when writing this review.

Would the movie be a dark comedy? a domestic drama? A murder mystery?

Apparently, the director couldn't make up his mind. Instead, he gave us a dinner party with characters so smug, self-absorbed and repulsive that, until the actual crime was revealed, I thought the movie was a dark comedy version of "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie."

This movie is full of great actors, a rich premise and an emotionally provocative moral question about how far we would go to protect those we love. Unfortunately, it takes two hours to raise the question, and, by then, I detested all the characters do much that I didn't care what the answer was.

Apparently, neither did the director,

Great actors. But the movie is so rubbish. Dropping from one plot to another. Dragging and dragging and leaving you without ending at all

I stuck it through to the end, mainly because the cast are so great. Normally. But nothing could save this film. The script and over-talking and intercutting made it all a jumbled mess.

There was no one to root for. And the ending? It's like it ran out of steam and subdural ideas and appalling dialogue.

A killing at the end might have saved it. But I was beyond caring.

Fisticuffs among bros, I've seen too much of that lately in more films and series than I can count.

Spare me.

1/10

This is a film adaptation of a really quite excellent book - sorry to say that the film did not meet expectations at all. It was disjointed, had no conclusion and was mostly just plain muddled.

The only positives are that it was well acted and shot nicely.

I'm unsure what the screenwriter was doing really though - to mash an excellent book up that way and regurgitate it into this mess seems a travesty.

A waste of time and effort and talent!

movie aside............... the SOUND EFFECTS DEPARTMENT needs to NEVER WORK Again!!!!! whose ever idea it was to use the "APPLE ALERT SOUND" through out the ENTIRE MOVIE DIE!!!!! Usually Richard Gere movies were something to look forward to... (ACTUALLy.... he was maybe the ONLY ONE who I didn't want to PUNCH in this film)

Oren Moverman's latest movie is quite the challenge. It has difficult characters, discomforting dialogue, an intricate construction and spreads over two hours. Nobody can accuse The Dinner of being unambitious, but I would like to accuse it of being an ambitious mess. Thankfully, not an unbearable mess.

Although Richard Gere (Stan) headlines, it's Steve Coogan (Paul), playing his brother, who appears to lead at the beginning. In an unexpected American accent, he narrates with misanthropic cynicism, as preparations for a dinner event are underway. The narration stops at some point and comes back randomly throughout the movie - just one of several small incoherences that make everything feel unusual. Stan and Paul's relationship is strained, at best, while their wives Kate (Rebecca Hall) and Claire (Laura Linney) act as mediators. Some dark matter seems to have brought them together at an elitist restaurant boasting culinary lushness; a matter which unfolds at a slow pace, interlaced with Stan fighting to pass a bill in congress, Paul's Gettysburg obsessions, their children's suspect affairs, past personal traumas, all across several courses of an impressive sounding meal.

For a movie that desires to tackle the lofty theme of social divide, it starts out feeling very personal. As it progresses, it distances itself from Paul to focus on the bigger picture and gravitate around Stan. It's a difficult move to pull off, as some sense of alienation occurs in the viewer, who has to accept the deep flaws surfacing in the 'object of attachment'. I felt a bit stranded, which culminated in a subpar ending.

But it wasn't a complete shipwreck, as Stan, alongside Kathey and Claire, managed to wrestle my attention. Indeed, wrestle is the right word, in what turns out to be a less than peaceful digestif. The whole preachiness of the last thirty minutes or so is borderline crass, yet engaging, in a visceral kind of way. It's a decent payout after ninety minutes of fluctuating intensity.

Do the themes and motives really blend though? It's hard to find a 'red string' to carry you through, as Paul's Hobbesian worldview overlaps with discussions of mental illness, political maneuvering and familial discord. You get pushed into finding personal interpretations to allegorical content, which is fun and rewarding, yet the movie proves heavy- handed in framing its moral questions and imperatives. Next to its schizophrenic identity dilemma, this just works against itself in the final scenes.

I really liked the intensity, the grotesque and obscene affluence entailed by the dinner scenes, even some of the almost derivative monologues. The interpretative freedom made some of the drearier moments worthwhile, but more cohesion and restraint would have transformed The Dinner into something quite special all around. In spite of the backlash it's being served, Oren Moverman's film is a worthwhile exploration into how messy holding yourself consistent socially and philosophically can be.

This seemed like the type of film I would typically enjoy, however there is nothing enjoyable about this film whatsoever.

The first half is so slow-paced and drawn out that I almost completely lost interest before the actual point of the dinner was revealed. Once I got to that point, the premise of the film was *just* interesting enough to force myself to suffer through the meandering second half to find out what happens in the end... except there is no actual ending. It just stops, as if they suddenly ran out of film while shooting the final scene.

Besides that, the sound editing made me want to punch my TV screen in the face. How, you ask? By starting with practically inaudible dialogue muttered under the breath, and cutting suddenly to blaringly loud transition music, and repeating that about 46 trillion times until I wore out the volume buttons on my remote.

This might be the most excruciating film I've ever sat through.

"But there was no one to root for" good lord.

I haven't read the book but The Dinner is an excellent film that stands on its own.

Poses some interesting philosophical questions and ends on a hanger that I'm sure got a lot of viewers' collective panties in a bunch.

This film is not about A-Z plotting, it's about exposing the underbelly of society and how empathy has almost entirely eroded in our broken culture.

Some great scenes with fantastic dialog, everyone delivers the goods. Laura Linney made my skin crawl. Yes, she's good.

The premiere gave way to a little scandal here, as the original writer of the novel bluntly refused to attend the reception afterwards, citing how bad the movie was and strayed from his intentions, finding it too moralistic as he saw it as an immorality tale; and themed too much around violence and mental illness.

This is however a well-directed movie by Moverman that stands on its own and the whole feud is a classic case of writer dissatisfaction with the liberties a director has taken with the material, remember King for The Shining or Kundera for The Unbearable Lightness of Being. So instead of playing the blunt drama queen the writer could have respected the interpretation, but they almost never do being in love with their own material.

This is well-directed by hiding the story like Haneke often does, next to putting you multiple times on the wrong track where the movie is heading. The movie works by playing to fundamental human psychological weaknesses the characters show in observing and interpreting information, and working that into the script so the viewers make the same mistakes. Clever. Sometimes however, the director is too much in love with his script, with overlong sequences in Gettysburg (we get the picture after ten seconds, but it draws out for minutes) and history lessons by Coogan as a teacher. Next to this it has several weakness in editing, the cinematography is also average, and the dark humor often falls flat.

Gere, Coogan and especially Linney give excellent performances, contributing to the unsettling effect the movie ultimately has.

Yes, it is a morality tale, but I disagree with the general view currently established that this is preachy, after all the ending is open and the moral dilemma is anchored in personal strife and views on solving these dilemmas, referring back to several schools in ethics like teleology, deontology and utilitarianism.

This might have been one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Not only does the plot jump around trying to tie in dramatic twists, but the ending leaves you wonder what the hell just happened. The whole movie is boring and lacks actual depth. Whoever wrote this tried way too hard to write an award winning movie by being unique that they actually forgot to relate the 237930850 story lines. One person has a mental illness, there's a solid 5 minutes regarding the Civil War that ties into literally nothing, and in the end you have no idea what they actually decided to do with their kids, which is what the whole movie is suppose to be about. Just terrible. I've heard my 2 year old tell better stories.

Nothing in this movie makes sense. You have been warned.

If there was a zero rating, I would give it. This movie made absolutely no sense to us. Maybe my husband and I are of a different generation (we are 60) and just don't understand modern movie making anymore. This one was an utter waste of time. The plot was nonsensical, the ending even more so. I am a huge fan of Richard Gere, but even his presence couldn't fix this bomb. As my heading suggests, just go out to dinner, or sit on your front porch and enjoy two hours of your time.

Worst movie I have seen to date that had "big name" stars in it.. What were they thinking releasing this garbage...

Throughout the movie I was thinking about rating this around a 3 or 4 for keeping me interested in what actually happened.

The ending brought it down to a solid 1. I couldn't rate this is 2 even if I was paid to do so.

Do NOT waste your time.

11/24/17. A somewhat stellar cast is caught up in the quagmire of the totally vacuous lives of the extremely rich and empty-headed. Watching paint dry is more exciting than the way these people avoid the necessary discussion at hand. Lasted only 29 minutes, and that was 28 minutes too long.

I was totally captivated by this film. All the cast were excellent, all of them favorites of mine, with Steve Coogan's depiction of mental imbalance especially brilliant. Some of the audience at my showing seem to be baffled by the unorthodox ending, but I thought it a fitting end. Will see whatever Moverman does in the future.

Movies are almost never as good as the book so nobody needs to hear that fact of life over and over again so please stop. The casting for this film was excellent as was the decadence portrayed through "food art", interior decor, and a virtual army of overly attentive wait staff. It burned a little too slow for my taste in the beginning but picked up once it became clear that the kids had done something awful. I don't know if the story was designed to compel viewers to do a complete180 in terms of liking or disliking characters by the time it ended but it did so for me. By the end of it my opinions had flipped. Richard Gere's crisis of conscience was a bit of a surprise to me and I felt enough pity for Paul by the end of it to excuse his general contempt for the entire human race. Lord knows I feel that way sometimes. The two wives morphed into self serving piranhas. Without giving away spoilers they both had to fight really hard to get a seat at the table (pun intended...I think). Sometimes really good people go on self absorbed power trips when they realize that their relentless drive to keep fighting and to only focus on themselves was the only reason they were able to overcome a really bad past situation. It isn't too far fetched to to assume that some folks opt to stay in that battleship mode to avoid having to go through more trauma. Both wives made it crystal clear that the whole world can burn except for family and even then there may be some smoke damage. Their contempt for the homeless and constantly repeating that it was just an accident was nauseating so they both played their roles extremely well and nobody should dog this movie for that.

There wasn't an end but that's sort of the point. Life is a messy sequence of good and bad experiences and then you die...fin. Nonetheless, sudden endings in movies is nothing new and now just comes across as a little bit lazy. I gave this an extra star for the culinary aspects. If you're not already well versed in the subject I recommend turning subtitles on to catch the correct spellings of what was prepared for each course. I rolled my eyes when the host gushed over the "oh so controversial" cheese banned by the FDA with no explanation given by him. I stand corrected as it turns out that it's a French cheese that purposely introduces "cheese mites" to facilitate a chemical process that gives the rind a distinct taste and texture.

Go watch paint dry. Go watch the water spin around in the toilet after you flush it. Spend your time and money doing anything but watching this nonsensical and utterly boring garbage. After hanging in there hoping for some sort of conclusion that would bring this disjointed mess together the garbage just ended like a horse with a broken leg being put out of it's misery. No payoff for sticking around till the end. This gives new meaning to the word sucks.

Too many threads, no empathetic characters, crappy edits and a non-ending. A massive waste of talent and 2 hours of my time. Allegory? Even allegory needs coherence and this film had no cohesiveness whatsoever.