Late for Dinner

The idea is not new. The idea is dangereous. I think Mel Gibson made a film similar... While I was watching this, I was thinking how stupid it should have been with Julia Roberts or Harrison Ford in it. But because it was made with a low budget, because the actors are not stars (both guys are very good), because it's away from Hollywood, it goes on very well, and had some sort of sincere credibility. The finale is a very warm touching love scene. Independant low budget films are the only ones representative of the US cinema. This is a good example of just simple quality film without millions or stars, or Oscars, or anything silly of< that sort.

I saw this movie when it debuted at the Boston Movie Festival and enjoyed it. It has become one of my guilty pleasure movies and I think that it is a hidden treasure. It was a sweet and charming film. I liked the relationship between the two main characters Willie Husband played by Brian Wimmer and Frank Lovegren played by Peter Berg.

This movie was made a year before Mel Gibson's "Forever Young". The story here is quite similar, but with the lower budget and it's own pace, "Late For Dinner" works better for me. I love Mel Gibson, but here the absence of a big box office name here puts the focus where it ought to be, on the story itself.

The first time I saw it, it struck me as a largely a no-name cast, but looking at it today I see it a bit differently......Marcia Gay Harden, Peter Gallagher, Kyle Secor and Janeane Garofalo are all there.

Like most films of this sort, it requires 'suspension of disbelief', but once you let go, it is a charming and very enjoyable film. Watch it with someone you love.

I just saw 'Late for Dinner' again on TV.

I forgot how much I liked it.

It's both simple and silly but it's also sweet and endearing.

I guess, for me it seems like an Australian film that was made in America. No big bang special effects. Great characters and a laconic but genuine feel about the story, the characters, and the overall impression.

Both guys are cute and believable in this really unbelievable yarn.

I cried when Willy met up with his 'old' wife Joy. They both did it so well.

No great intellectual challenges here...just a most enjoyable movie.

When Willy and his brother in law Frank (Peter Berg) who is intellectually disabled run into some trouble after a misunderstanding with a land developer (Peter Gallager), which leaves Willy injured and the land developer dead, they leave there home town of Santa Fe and travel to California, where they are helped by a Dr who asks Frank if he could have a really good nights sleep and wake up with a new kidney (Frank has health problems besides his disability), would he be willing to try it, Frank wholeheartedly agrees accept Willy and Frank are cryongenically frozen and woken up 29 years later after the tanks they are in become damaged from a cable reel falling through the roof of the warehouse they are in, They then embark on a journey home to Santa Fe to get there lives back, however what they once had may not be so easy to get back, as they discover. This movie although not a smash hit or a box office hit, was in my mind quite good, Peter Gallager as the slimey land developer delivers a steller performance and Peter Berg as Frank delivers one of his best performances to date, though I am biased in that regard as I absolutely love this actor and have been following his career religiously for a while now. I'd recomend this film to all audiences, young and old.