Sep 15, 2005 09:27 AM
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(Updated Sep 15, 2005 09:27 AM)
Le Dîner de Cons (The Dinner Game) is a delicious French comedy written by Francis Veber, the creator of La Cage Aux Folles (the movie 'The Birdcage' in English), and adapted from his play.
Pierre Brochant, a succesful publisher is charming, arrogant, selfish and rich. He has stolen his wife from his best friend, has a mistress and is described by most people he knows as mean. Pierre and his friends have a standing date for Wednesday night. Each of them has to invite an idiot to dinner and the person who brings the biggest idiot wins. Pierre, who doesnt think much of the feelings of others, is quite capable of inviting even a good friend's father as his idiot. But, this time, he hasnt found an idiot as yet and has stared to panic. He asks a friend for help, and as luck would have it, the friend has a fateful encounter on the train with Monsieur François Pignon, a government tax minister. He gives Pignon's number to Pierre and assures him that there couldnt be a bigger idiot than Pignon. Pignon's hobby consists of making matchstick models of famous architectural achievements - the Eiffel tower, the Golden Gate bridge etc and he cannot stop talking about his models. Pierre calls him up on the pretext of publishing a book of his models and invites him to his house to have a little fun before heading to the dinner. But, he reckons without the idiot, Pignon. As the night progresses, Pignon succesfully unravels every part of Pierre's carefully ordered life and proceeds to avenge every idiot ever made fun of by Pierre and his friends!!
The movie is a hilarious laugh-riot with some splendid performances by Thierry Lhermitte (q-ute!) as Pierre Brochant and Jacques Villeret as François Pignon. Villeret as Pignon, especially convinces you so totally of his complete idiocy that at times you feel extremely sorry for Pierre, even though he has brought everything on himself. Some of the funniest scenes in the movie involve Pignon and Pierre, but I feel the best scenes are Pignon's telephone conversations. Villeret seems to be a superlative actor, immersing himself in the situational comedy and using his entire body to do his acting. Lhermitte who is a French heart-throb, looks unbelievably good (ooh! these French men :D) and pulls off the selfish guy without any redeeming qualities, perfectly. It is a testament to his charm, that even though the character is so mean, we feel sorry for him and actually come to like him as the movie progresses. The supporting actors, though not required to be there for too many scenes, are also extremely good.
This movie is one of the funniest I have seen in a long time. And it's so refreshing to actually find a comedy which doesnt involve jokes on bodily functions, gay-bashing, nerd-bashing (though it is idiot-bashing :) and suchlike, a surfeit of which can be found in Hollywood nowadays. The beauty of the movie is that though the plot is so simplistic, the sets are few (mainly involving Pierre's apartment), but the screenplay, dialogues and actors all work together to make it an intensely enjoyable movie.
The film isnt long with a running time of just under 1 and a half hours. I would recommend it as being well worth a watch if anyone is looking for a different kind of comedy movie....
Bon apetit!!
