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THE DINNER GAME (LE DINER DE CONS) Send This Review to a Friend
With some films you can't help but laugh even if you try not to. "The Dinner Game" ("Le Diner de Cons") a new French farce, is unrelentingly laugh-aloud hilarious. Stemming from a hit French stage production, it is written and directed by Francis Veber, who created the immensely popular "La Cage Aux Folles," which had various incarnations.
The plot is nastily simple. A group of friends schedule dinners for their malicious amusement. The object is to invite the biggest jerk they can find. The unsuspecting guest of honor thinks the invitation is because he's so special and doesn't know he's the butt of the joke. It takes a short while to set up the film's basic situation, but once it gets going there's an onslaught of belly-laughs galore.
The chosen jerk in this case is Pignon, an accountant at the government finance ministry. His hobby, in which he takes unbounded pride, is making famous monuments like the Eiffel Tower out of matchsticks. Distinguished French actor Jacques Villeret, who created the part on stage, is devastatingly funny, and when required, endearing as well. It's a masterly performance.
The actual dinner never occurs. Brochant, the conspirator who found Pignon, injures his back and is apartment-bound. Pignon shows up at his place and the mayhem begins. Pignon can screw up any situation known to humankind. Suffice it to say that Brochant has a wife who's leaving him, a sex-hungry mistress, tax-cheating secrets and a desire to save his marriage. Thierry Lhermitte, one of France's most skillful and popualr acotrs, plays Brochant with the perfect tone and timing of an expert farceur. In fact, the entire cast is wickedly adept at farce.
Daniel Prevost is comic perfection as Pingon's chronically suspicious tax collector friend Cheval, whose beady, inquiring eyes miss nothing. Alexandra Vandernoot brings the right note of anger to Christine, Brochant's wife, and Catherine Frot is sexily and aggressively ditsy as his mistress. Writer-director Veber obviously knows that successful farce depends on fast pacing that doesn't give an audience a chance to even think about credibility. He also springs assorted comic surprises at just the right moments as the madness mounts.
I can't think of a comedy that's more fun to see this summer. A Lion's Gate release
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