Movie Reviews (such as they are)

Friday, January 18, 2008

le dîner de cons (aka The Dinner Game)


I had no expectations of le dîner de cons before sitting down to watch it. My wife vaguely remembered some good reviews, so we thought we'd give it a go.

The initial set-up is that every week a group of friends get together for a dinner party, each of them bringing the dumbest person they can find, hence the name of the film, which translates as "The Idiots' Dinner", more or less.

The invited idiots are asked to talk about themselves, and the person who brought the most stupid guest is declared the winner.

So far, so slapstick.

Pierre chooses François, a man who makes world landmarks out of matchsticks, as his idiot and invites him to his house prior to heading to the dinner. But Pierre injures his back, so the pair miss the meal and end up having to spend the evening together in the apartment. Throw in an ex-wife and her lover, and sit back for the fireworks.

As I said above, I had pretty low expectations. European humour doesn't always travel well to other languages (or, rather, to subtitles). But I needn't have worried. le dîner de cons was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. I was close to rolling on the floor.

If you get the chance, you should see this instead of the forthcoming US remake, poetically titled Dinner for Schmucks (vom!). I give le dîner de cons 81 points out of 100.

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