The Dinner — the third film to have been made of Herman Koch’s book-group argument of a novel, originally published in Dutch in 2009, about two related couples trying to decide, over a fancy restaurant meal, what to do about their sons having got away with a truly vile crime — promised well. Having originally developed the script for Cate Blanchett to direct, Oren Moverman (Rampart) took on helming too.
The setting has been transferred to the States, and Richard Gere plays a glad-handing congressman running for higher office, Rebecca Hall his second, trophy wife; Steve Coogan is his furious, semi-deranged younger brother, Laura Linney his long-suffering wife, initially placatory but in the end the nastiest of them all.
Thus exposing the lives of those so privileged they feel above the law and common responsibility, this adaptation was said to be a perfect fit for the Trump era.
However, the drama remains stagey, speechifying and psychologically implausible, a series of rows and stormings-out, any momentum vitiated by over-frequent, tensionless flashbacks to previous family scenes. The Donald’s withers will remain unwrung.
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