Gabe and Karen are happily married food critics who invite two friends over to dinner. However, their friends Beth and Tom reveal that they are on the verge of breaking up. Their revelation leads Gabe and Karen to look more closely at their own relationship, through conversations and flashbacks.
by Kim Newman |
Published on
Release Date:
01 Jan 2001
Running Time:
0 minutes
Certificate:
15
Original Title:
Dinner With Friends
A cable TV offering from Norman Jewison, based on a Pullitzer prize-winning play, this defaults to pictures of people talking, but has a solid dramatic structure as you'd expect given the source material.
Settled Andie MacDowell and Dennis Quaid invite flakier friends Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear over. But when Collette reveals that Kinnear is leaving her for a younger woman, it prompts where-did-things-go-wrong? flashbacks and shakes up their friends lives more than their own.
There are moments of interesting honesty, and the players get to enjoy some meaty roles - especially Quaid, nicely underplaying one of the least showiest roles he's had in years.
The drama's all there, but there are funny and quirky moments a-plenty to lighten the tone, and all the leads are on good form. A trifle too talky, but nevertheless worth a look.
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