Dinner Game

‘Dinner Game’ filled with zany characters

Jacque Villeret is the idiot in "The Dinner Game."

“The Dinner Game” could almost be a done as a stage play, an exceptionally funny stage play.
This is a zany film stuffed with bizarre characters and unusual situations. In the 1930s, it could be one of those madcap films with Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn and directed by George Cukor.
But this film is written and directed by Francis Veber, the screenwriter behind the hilarious classic “La Cage Au Folles.”
This is a 1998 French film which spawned a recent American remake, “Dinner for Schmucks.”
The premise is simple. Rich executives who are full of themselves schedule weekly dinners. Each is supposed to bring an idiot, an eccentric weirdo whom they can pretend to be interested in but they are really making fun of.
For instance, there’s the man in full business suit who spends his afternoons in the park throwing boomerangs.
Then there’s Thierry Lhermitte, who plays a handsome, rich publisher, Pierre. He needs someone to take to this dinner. A friend meets Francois, played by Jacque Villeret, a short, chunky accountant who copes with being abandoned by his wife years ago by recreating famous structures with matchsticks.
So bizarre and boring is Francois, he appears to be the perfect idiot for the dinner.
He is working for the equivalent of the French Internal Revenue Service. When he gets invited to the dinner, he is told a book may come out of this. Cruel indeed.
So Francois is asked to stop at the Lhermitte character’s spacious apartment and they will be off to the dinner.
Unfortunately, Pierre has thrown out his back and his doctor prescribes bed rest, not dinner with idiots.
Pudgy Francois shows up and he is all of the idiot that Pierre could hope for. Unfortunately, Pierre is no shape to go anywhere. So he promises Francois they will go another time. Francois, who has already stumbled over Pierre and made his back worse, bids adieu but before he leaves, the phone rings. The answering machine gets the call. It is Pierre’s wife, stating he is going to leave him.
Francois, hoping to console poor Pierre, stays. In fact, a running joke in this film is that Francois frequently gets ready to exit, but something happens in the plot requiring him to stay.
Make no mistake, Francois is an idiot and hatches schemes but then messes up, making things worse. Pierre has a girlfriend as well as the estranged wife. His wife’s old lover shows up at the apartment, as does a tax agent.
Chaos and absolute hilarity ensues.
This film is an absolute hoot and I found myself laughing loudly in many situations.
You can’t take these characters seriously, but then, you can’t take the plot seriously at all.
I can’t vouch for the American remake, “Dinner for Schmucks,” which has Steve Carell as the idiot.
But the original “The Dinner Game” is a match you should play. You are guaranteed a good time.

THE DINNER GAME
• Directed and written by Francis Veber
• French with English subtitles
• Runtime: 80 minutes
• Rated PG-13
• 3 1/2 stars out of 4