Review: The Dinner

Published in 2009, Herman Koch's international bestseller The Dinner has already been adapted three times for the big screen: a 2013 Dutch-language film directed by Menno Meyjes, a 2014 Italian-language version directed by Ivano De Matteo, and now an English-language adaptation initially intended to be Cate Blanchett's directorial debut but ultimately helmed by writer-director Oren Moverman.

It's not too difficult to understand why Koch's work would attract so much interest. Told from the perspective from an increasingly unreliable narrator, the tale seems simple enough: two couples gather over a multi-course dinner to discuss a terrible incident involving their children. Yet there's far more to digest as the evening unfolds. Like Carnage, Roman Polanski's 2011 film adaptation of Yasmina Reza's play God of Carnage, The Dinner is essentially a four-person chamber piece that wonders how far parents would go to protect their children. Similarly, Moverman's work provides four extremely talented actors with complex and substantial material for them to sink their teeth into.

The quartet in question are Stan (Richard Gere), a congressman in the midst of running for governor, his much-younger second wife Kate (Rebecca Hall), and brother Paul (Steve Coogan) and his wife Claire (Laura Linney). Paul is reluctant to go to the dinner, not wanting to deal with his brother, in whose shadow he has lived, and his self-serving lifestyle. Indeed, once Paul and Claire arrive at the fashionable restaurant, he wastes no time in targeting everything from the ridiculously serious presentation of the food and drinks ("Can you taste the wars and famines?" he wonders as an array of international hors d'oeuvres are brought) to Stan's glad-handing of the other notable figures in the restaurant. There's a toxicity that hangs in the air and it's clear that this is no ordinary dinner.

The real reason for the gathering is to discuss their sons, who have committed a horrific act against a homeless woman. Paul is in the dark about the crime and reacts badly to learning that Claire has known about it from the start. Stan wants the boys to confess and face the consequences of their actions. Both women are fiercely against it: Claire doesn't believe he should jeopardise their futures, whilst Kate, also mindful of the impact of the reveal on her husband's political career, pointedly tells Stan that he would do more good as governor than he ever could as a husband or father. Stan may be doing damage control, but there's something far greater motivating him, namely a chance to do something about the mental illness that has plagued his family, Paul in particular.

Moverman explored mental illness in his previous work, the criminally underrated Time Out of Mind, and his ability to draw out how frightening it must be to live with such an illness as well as the difficulties of others having to deal with that unstable mentality is without equal. Moverman doesn't sensationalise but rather matter-of-factly observes - look no further than a scene showing an agitated Paul talking on the phone. There's a bloody handprint on the window that is almost unnoticeable and then Moverman reveals a mirror, its glass cracked and bloodied, as Paul goes to open the door for Stan. Leeching the scene of its potential melodrama only makes it more distressing.

That said, Moverman's detached and characteristically expressionistic approach doesn't always benefit the material. It takes far too long for the narrative to directly address the main issue and the multiple flashbacks often distract rather than enhance. Though he does a fine job of keeping audience allegiance shifting from one side to the other, the plates are kept spinning far longer than needed.

Gere delivered one of his all-time best performances under Moverman's watch in Time Out of Mind, and so too does Coogan here in The Dinner. It's no exaggeration to call what the comedian does revelatory. He fully inhabits the perpetually malcontented Paul, and his often hostile portrayal repels audience sympathy even as it elicits a modicum of understanding. It's as bleak and detailed a portrait of a lost soul as one will ever see committed to the screen.

The Dinner

Directed by: Oren Moverman

Written by: Oren Moverman; based on the novel by Herman Koch

Starring: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Steve Coogan, Rebecca Hall, Chloe Sevigny, Charlie Plummer, Adepero Oduye, Michael Chernus, Stephen Lang