Customer Reviews

Melvin Goes To Dinner

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Although I have not yet purchased the DVD, I was fortunate enough to see this film recently at the Deep Ellum Film festival in Dallas.
For me, it's a "must see." There are few films of this type which will hold your attention as well. In addition to fine acting, the camera work is extraordinary, and the editing makes you feel as though you were one of the group, able to shift your attention at will.
The characters are interesting and well developed, and the script moves along effortlessly. Before you know it, the 90 minutes have flown by, and you're ready to buy the next bottle of wine. Suddenly you're tempted to take these four characters back to your place for an all-nighter.
If you want to eavesdrop on good conversation that has some interesting twists, sit down at this table. You won't regret it.

A friend of mine and I sat down to watch this film about four people in a really, really great dinner conversation, and, within five minutes of listening to the characters wax theories on religion and sex, I was saying to her, "Wow, we've had that conversation before."

And from that moment and for that reason, we found MELVIN GOES TO DINNER fascinating. As the film went on, though, and we got to know the characters better, we got wrapped up in the real and imagined ties between the characters. We tried to figure out how they all knew each other, really, and the film surprised us with several plot twists that we didn't see coming.

Adapted from a stage play using essentially the same principal cast, MELVIN GOES TO DINNER is a surprising find, one that I'm going to purchase so that I can watch it over and over. It's watchable for its plot and for its use of quality conversation.

I highly recommend this.

After watching this movie I wanted to go out and make more interesting friends. TV producers should take a lesson from this film - I would love to see a series with characters as fun to follow as those in Melvin Goes to Dinner. The extra film on the DVD about their trip to film festivals is so funny I laugh just thinking about it.

Melvin Goes to Dinner had me laughing so hard. The way the director cuts between dinner and scenes of each person's life is interesting in that you have to fit the pieces in the right order and figure out what's going on. This isn't too hard to do but it is fun and leaves a bit to the imagination. I saw it at an independent theater for $3 in Cambridge, and it was worth so much more than that. Put one in everyone's stocking. They won't be disappointed.

I picked this up from Hollywood video, noticing "SUNDANCE" across the cover. It is a very interesting movie. I may not have seen all of the director's other work, as many of the other reviewers, but having picked this off the shelf by chance, I think I am as qualified as any to say that "Melvin Goes to Dinner" is an excellent film. It is a thoroughly entertaining, interesting and thought-provoking film about people. Four people end up chatting for hours over wine at a bistro. The viewer does not know their particular relationships to one another, and in the beginning of the movie, little flashes from the characters' lives are thrown in. I thought the beginning was a bit too much information for a viewer, but it sorted out in the end as the characters' lives unfolded to each other and the viewer. It was an excellent movie, I highly recommend it.

On the down side is the fact that the 2003 film Melvin Goes To Dinner, directed by first timer Bob Odenkirk, is a watered down yuppy version of the great 1981 Louis Malle film My Dinner With Andre. On the up side is that if you are going to imitate something, at least choose something great, for the imitation, while not great, is likely to be good, which My Dinner With Melvin is. It was written by actor/playwright Michael Blieden, adapted from his play Phyro-Giants, and had a no name cast, as opposed to 2001's similarly themed HBO film Dinner With Friends, which starred Dennis Quaid, Toni Collette, Andie McDowell, and Greg Kinnear.... the film really does chicken out of putting its characters in emotional deep water. Yes, admissions of fetishes and infidelities can titillate, but given that this was filmed only a year and a half after 9/11 you'd think there might be a touch of political dischord thrown in. They argue a bit over religion, but no character seems willing to really stand up for anything. They are all, in that sense, preening wimps.
Still, I only wish there were deeper characters. Whereas Shawn and Gregory discourse on life and determinism, the four yuppies talk of things like ghosts with all the depth that a post-Angels In America America can muster, and then are amazed at each others' supposed depth, and how stimulating their conversation is. And when I reference Angels In America it's not a mere throwaway diss. There's a reason for the connection. Call it Post-Intellectualism. Call it, `Show, don't tell.' Call it a nice try that settles for copouts. There are too many synchronicities and pallid contrivances that line up to get these four people together in the first place, and then reveal so much about themselves. Yet, it succeeds just enough that I can recommend this noble attempt, especially since the film's start and end are strong- and I mean literally the first and last few seconds of each. You may not wish you were able to join in the conversation, as you did with My Dinner With Andre, but it's still a few notches above anything you'll overhear in a real restaurant. For that, I recommend this DVD.

Nearly all of Melvin Goes to Dinner's breif running time is spent observing a rambling but always interesting dinner conversation among four variously connected people in their late twenties. I was very impressed by both the writing and the acting. It's rare enough that we get even brief conversations that sound right, like real people really speak to each other; Here we have over an hour's worth.

All of the performances are very good. I especially liked Stephanie Courtney's ability to make Alex simultaneously annoying and charming. Others have noted the wonderful cameo by Jack Black as a mental patient with an impressively detailed conception of reality.

If you find yourself looking for a break from CGI and other special effects, give Melvin Goes to Dinner a try. The best thing I can say about it is that as soon as it ended, I wanted to watch it again from the beginning.

The structure of "Melvin Goes To Dinner" is fairly simple: Four people meet for dinner and talk. The obvious comparison is to Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory's "My Dinner With Andre," in which two people meet for dinner and talk. But the differences between the two movies reveal a lot about how films and their audiences have changed over the past few decades.

"My Dinner With Andre" is a movie that comes right out of the 1970's, (though I believe it was actually made in the mid-'80's). It takes itself very seriously and it expects its audience to sit through this conversation without any bells or whistles to keep them entertained. It's a conversation and nothing more. Those who dislike the movie complain that it's dull, pretentious, and pseudo-intellectual. Although I personally love the movie and find it fascinating, I can certainly see where they're coming from.

"Melvin Goes to Dinner" is a very modern version of the same idea in that the conversation, which is supposed to be very deep and thought-provoking, doesn't aim nearly as high. Whereas Andre and Wallace Shawn discuss the role of destiny and pre-determination in our lives, Melvin and his friends ask each other if they believe in ghosts. Andre and Wallace discuss great directors, books, and philosophy. Melvin and his friends talk about watching porn. And while "My Dinner with Andre" demands a fair bit of patience, "Melvin Goes to Dinner" tries to break up the monotony of their conversation with various "flashback" sequences and moments of pseudo-drama: Someone getting up to leave rather than reveal a personal secret; A "wacky" drunken waitress; A surprise twist at the end; A framing sequence about Melvin having sex with a married (and totally nutso) woman.

"My Dinner with Andre" leaves you with questions to ponder; "Melvin Goes to Dinner" leaves you with a pat sense of resolution.

All of which is not to say that "Melvin Goes to Dinner" is a bad movie; it isn't. After the initial 20 or so minutes, it becomes pretty interesting and there are some nice moments in it. Overall, though, it feels a bit contrived. I got tired of the various characters telling each other -and the audience- how interesting their conversation was. The director shouldn't need to tell me that I'm watching an interesting conversation; I should be able to draw that conclusion on my own.

All in all, "Melvin Goes to Dinner" is an interesting movie with some nice moments, but it's nothing extraordinary.

People are BORING! Seriously - this is totally banal and un-witty and just not interesting. What a waste of time and film.

Let's dispense with any unfair comparisons to "My Dinner With Andre" right from the start. Of course it's not that wonderful film! But that's not a bad thing, because while "Melvin Goes to Dinner" utilizes the same basic format, it quickly goes in its own direction. The characters are smart, witty, not uncommon people -- we know them, or people very much like them -- and their emerging problems are more immediate. If their existential questions aren't quite so Olympian in stature, they're still pressing & painful & eventually cut quite closely to the bone.

Add to that the humor of the conversation, the sense of going out on increasingly fragile limbs, and you've got an offbeat film that's both intelligent & marvelously entertaining. Even better, it'll get you thinking, and might even lead to some fruitful conversations of your own. The DVD also includes some enjoyable extras & commentary tracks, making this a film worth owning & watching more than once. It does have some rough edges, both because of a limited budget & the fact that it's a first effort for the filmmakers; but don't let that stop you from giving it a try. Recommended!