In my mind, there are some films that belong to true aficionados. These are the art house flicks that seem to be the sorts of movies that casual fans would probably avoid. Most such movies in my mind seem to be foreign films with long runtimes and subtitles. But then there’s My Dinner with Andre, an English language film that is basically two men talking over dinner. I started to watch it about a week ago on The Criterion Channel, but then my girlfriend called about ten minutes in, and by the time we were finished talking, it was a bit late, so I got back to finish it yesterday, and it was not as intimidating as I thought it would be.
Granted, my girlfriend called again, and she was amused to learn that the “Inconceivable!” actor from The Princess Bride was in it, but this time I was able to finish the movie before bed when our talk stopped.
Featuring, basically, two actors playing themselves, the movie opens with a voiceover from Wallace “Wally” Shawn as he’s setting out to have dinner at a fancy restaurant with his longtime friend, theatrical director Andre Gregory. Shawn is, initially, a bit worried. He’s not financially well-off at the moment, and his money needs have forced him to do less play-writing and more acting just to pay bills while Andre has just returned from some kind of personal world tour following a midlife crisis. However, Wally has a strategy for situations like this one where he can simply keep asking Andre questions, find out more about what the man he’s talking to, and then put himself in a more comfortable place.
However, that doesn’t seem necessary. Andre is glad to see his old friend, and he’s more than happy to tell the stories of the art and mystical connections he made to other people after stepping away from his usual work as a theatrical director. It helps, no doubt, that Andre is a gifted storyteller, and as Wally gets more comfortable, he shares his own thoughts on the subjects of art, work, and life. And despite the fact the two disagree, they never seem to get angry or cross with each other, instead sharing their thoughts and opinions on the subject. They listen to each other, disagree but without any venom, and then both go their separate ways.
I more or less expected that. True, Andre is far more excited about the things he was doing than Wally can muster, Wally is a man who can find the simple pleasure of lying in bed with his girlfriend Debby (Shawn’s actual longtime partner) with an electric blanket. Wally finds science and discoverable observations about how the world works interesting and worth consideration while Andre considers creature comforts more likely to separate the user from the rest of the human race. As Andre says, he would rather be cold. But Andre is looking to find real art and human connection while Wally is trying to pay his bills. In the end, this movie, with a screenplay credited to Shawn and Gregory, is more about two different men listening to each other. I don’t think either calls the other wrong. They’re just different.
So, what am I to make of a movie like this? Simple: these two guys known how to hold an interesting conversation. That’s all I really need to know in the end.
Grade: A
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