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DINNER WITH FRIENDS (HBO) Send This Review to a Friend
The lure for filmmakers of special television opportunities to reach large audiences with intelligent material is increasing and one of cinema's most accomplished directors, Norman Jewison, has fashioned his version of the Pulitzer Prize-winnng play "Dinner With Friends," with its author, Donald Margulies, doing the adaptation for a Home Box Office production (premiere August 11th, 2001). The revealing, engrossing drama takes on a new dimension in its version for the home screen.
After viewing it, I checked the praise-filled review that I wrote regarding the stage presentation and noted my reference to Margulies's "comic zingers, lines sure to get laughs at critical moments even if they may not be what a character might say under the circumstances. But they always shed light on truths underlying the relationships." In this smart new version, there is less brittle comedy, although some of it is still there, and more emphasis on dramatically probing the anatomy of the relationships under the microscope. That works very well for the more intimate confines of home viewing, and I suspect that if Jewison's version of the play could eventually be shown in movie theaters it would work impressively there too.
The stellar screen cast, which tilts the dialogue tone toward earnestness, includes Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell as food writers Gabe and Karen, who, at the outset, are awaiting the arrival of their long-time friends, Greg Kinnear as the attorney Tom and Toni Collette as the graphic designer and artist Beth, who were introduced to each other by Gabe and Karen 12 years ago during a Martha's Vineyard vacation. The couples have been inseparable friends ever since. But something is amiss. Beth shows up on her own--she says Tom had to go on a trip unexpectedly. She listens as best she can as Gabe and Karen bore her by prattling on insensitively about a recent trip to Italy with gourmet dining as their main preoccupation. Finally, Beth breaks down in a rush of tears. Tom has left her for another woman, she reveals.
As on stage, the film explores the impact the breakup has on all four and in various permutations. We see how the friendship of Gabe and Tom is altered, the friendship of Karen and Beth is changed and the marriage of Gabe and Karen is put under stress. Long-standing differences and resentments rise to the surface, and none of the individuals will ever be the same in their own lives and with respect to what they thought were firm, durable friendships. Margulies has taken a mature, incisive look at his characters, brought wonderfully to life by this quartet of actors. (Children are also incidentally seen in the film, but only to give more realism to the domestic life.)
Quaid is particularly interesting as he conveys the bewilderment of Gabe as he tries to understand his straying friend, of whom he disapproves even while attempting to defend him against the scorn shown by Karen, who sees him simply as a betrayer. MacDowell nails Karen's anger with perfection, but also manages to make her interesting as a person. Kinnear's Tom is totally self-centered, not concerned with any wreckage he leaves behind and convinced that he is on the road to happiness with his new love, a travel agent. (One running note of humor is his rejected wife's condescending insistence on calling her a stewardess.) Toni Collette is especially deft in her portrayal of the jilted Beth, and the luncheon scene in which she announces that she has found someone new to Karen is a gem, as Beth beams with new self-confidence and happiness while Karen reveals her jealousy through her expressed misgivings.
Jewison effectively keeps the images tight and personal, which achieves the result of drawing us in as if we were observing through a one-way mirror characters who were exposing their feelings or masking their anxieties without being aware someone was watching. There is no need here for the sort of theatricality that is called for to conquer an audience in a live performance. The object here appears to be using the advantages of the medium to inch as close to the foursome as possible to lay bare their uncertainties and longings as marital relationships and upheavals are unsparingly and wittily dissected. An HBO Films release.
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