CrimeYear2017Duration2hIMDb4.5

The Dinner

CrimeDramaThriller

Two sets of wealthy parents meet for dinner to decide what to do about a crime their sons have committed.

Trailer

Cast

Michael Chernus

Dylan Heinz

Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman

Kamryn Velez

Steve Coogan

Paul Lohman

Charlie Plummer

Michael Lohman

Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick

Rick Lohman

Miles J. Harvey

Beau Lohman

Laura Hajek

Anna

Laura Linney

Claire Lohman

Richard Gere

Stan Lohman

Rebecca Hall

Katelyn Lohman

GS

George Shepherd

Stephen Whitney

Adepero Oduye

Nina

Joel Bissonnette

Antonio

Patrick Kevin Clark

Conor

Chloë Sevigny

Barbara Lohman

Emma R. Mudd

Val Lohman

Judah Sandridge

Seven Year Old Beau

JD

Jesse Dean Peterson

Eight Year Old Michael

Comments

10 Comments

mary_jerriJun 15, 2025

By any standard, The Dinner is an exercise in indigestion, two dysfunctional sets of parents try to figure out what to do about the crime their two young sons have committed. While the dialogue is not as bright as Edward Albee's in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, or even the similarly plotted Carnage, the staging is much more open, giving the sense that we can freely indulge allegory and perhaps lay the proceedings on our own door steps. The parents hope no one will find out about the crime. Except that there is a video an adopted African-American sibling made and is thinking of blackmailing them. For the adults, the situation endangers their own lives, which could be forever changed with the disclosure. The central conflict of wills takes place in an impossibly posh restaurant, with course descriptions about the length of a short essay, and where the high price of the meals pales next to the price everyone at the table will pay. Stan Lohman (possibly suggesting the doomed Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman), played elegantly by Richard Gere (in a successful time of his career considering the recent release of Norman), is a congressman running for governor and on the eve of passing mental health legislation. Because his brother, former history teacher Paul (Steve Coogan), has mental issues, the legislation has more importance than usual. Paul unfortunately sabotages every conversation with rants about the world, as such also a danger to the good will of the audience which must endure his diatribes. The better angel of this verbal slug fest, the congressman, considers jettisoning his political future for the sake of his son's future mental health, i.e., telling all to the press. Although he is not blameless in life, the others are deplorable in their self-serving arguments. His wife, Clare (Laura Linney), and sister in law, Katelyn (Rebecca Hall), try to dissuade Stan, while Paul gradually drifts away through madness or willful ignorance. Regardless, writer-director Oren Moverman does an effective job keeping track while he cuts from dinner to the boys with their crime and to those who leave the table for periods of time. Although I'm not sure the writers want to move too obviously in favor of Stan's moral high ground, they do persuasively show the tangled web deceit weaves as well as the corrosive nature of silence. For this word-loving critic, the emphasis on dialogue is nectar considering the blockbusters I must endure this summer. Because this entertaining stage-like drama moves in and around idealism and pragmatism, it's nice to know that some family problems are almost unsolvable, if not downright intractable. Welcome to our collective American dinners, where even unspoken words are time bombs.

Dado CeesayJun 15, 2025

I thought this would be an interesting movie about the moral decision behind the plot (what would you do if your son did something awful? would you turn him in to the police?). These are the questions that are posed in the trailer. But the movie is scattered, terribly and unjustifiably long (2 hours) and the ending doesn't provide closure. I hate open endings.

Ohidur sheikhJul 18, 2024

Joy🦄Jul 18, 2024

lekshmipalottuJul 18, 2024

King BobollasJul 16, 2024

mary_jerriMay 29, 2023

source: The Dinner

mawuenaNov 22, 2022

Great actors. But the movie is so rubbish. Dropping from one plot to another. Dragging and dragging and leaving you without ending at all

Sarah.familyNov 22, 2022

What a worthless movie. I should have known with super libs Richard Gere and Laura Linney in it, what it would be like. Call me stupid but I tried to watch it anyway. It was even worse than I thought it would be. I can only fault myself by trying to be open minded and give this movie a try. A wasted half hour of my life watching this crap (that's all I could manage to watch as I couldn't keep my finger off the fast forward button). I already hate politicians and this movie made me hate them even more. A bunch of out of touch idiots. To the so called intellectuals who try to paint this movie as something you need to be sophisticated to appreciate, what a bunch of BS! Sometimes the smarter you think you are, the dumber you actually are. Another Hollywood portrayal of how they think the world really is. Way off the mark. The Lifetime Channel would love this movie.

Efrata YohannesNov 22, 2022

By any standard, The Dinner is an exercise in indigestion, two dysfunctional sets of parents try to figure out what to do about the crime their two young sons have committed. While the dialogue is not as bright as Edward Albee's in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, or even the similarly plotted Carnage, the staging is much more open, giving the sense that we can freely indulge allegory and perhaps lay the proceedings on our own door steps. The parents hope no one will find out about the crime. Except that there is a video an adopted African-American sibling made and is thinking of blackmailing them. For the adults, the situation endangers their own lives, which could be forever changed with the disclosure. The central conflict of wills takes place in an impossibly posh restaurant, with course descriptions about the length of a short essay, and where the high price of the meals pales next to the price everyone at the table will pay. Stan Lohman (possibly suggesting the doomed Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman), played elegantly by Richard Gere (in a successful time of his career considering the recent release of Norman), is a congressman running for governor and on the eve of passing mental health legislation. Because his brother, former history teacher Paul (Steve Coogan), has mental issues, the legislation has more importance than usual. Paul unfortunately sabotages every conversation with rants about the world, as such also a danger to the good will of the audience which must endure his diatribes. The better angel of this verbal slug fest, the congressman, considers jettisoning his political future for the sake of his son's future mental health, i.e., telling all to the press. Although he is not blameless in life, the others are deplorable in their self-serving arguments. His wife, Clare (Laura Linney), and sister in law, Katelyn (Rebecca Hall), try to dissuade Stan, while Paul gradually drifts away through madness or willful ignorance. Regardless, writer-director Oren Moverman does an effective job keeping track while he cuts from dinner to the boys with their crime and to those who leave the table for periods of time. Although I'm not sure the writers want to move too obviously in favor of Stan's moral high ground, they do persuasively show the tangled web deceit weaves as well as the corrosive nature of silence. For this word-loving critic, the emphasis on dialogue is nectar considering the blockbusters I must endure this summer. Because this entertaining stage-like drama moves in and around idealism and pragmatism, it's nice to know that some family problems are almost unsolvable, if not downright intractable. Welcome to our collective American dinners, where even unspoken words are time bombs.

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