A cena da amici

No character makes sense, everybody is wrong. Gabe and especially the ultra conservative Karen constantly temper in their friend's decisions, which are really none of their business (as if my best friend had a right to tell me who I should be with or what my goals and principles in life should be). Tom on the other hand is a self-righteous bastard who always thinks of himself as the victim. He loves talking about himself and doesn't accept anyone else's opinion. And Beth, well, she's just an unbelievably annoying person. I could see how anyone would want to leave her.

A movie about failed marriages and love should show how nobody is wrong and everybody is right. The thing is, none of the four characters here is believable and the dialog is painful at times. From the first time Tom and Beth meet it's hard to believe that the two of them are even attracted to each other. It's also hard to believe that somebody as far removed from reality as Karen is living on this planet and happily married.

Nope, the writers got it all wrong and not even the cast can save this movie. Sorry.

Dinner with Friends is somewhat unusual. Perhaps I''m just not as well-versed as I thought, but I haven't seen other movies about two couples that are friends, one splits up and its effect on the other couple.

This movie obviously originates as a stage play as it consists of four people sitting around and talking. As such, you can only make it so interesting, visually.

Because of this, the movie relies pretty much exclusively on the dialog and actors to make things interesting, and they mostly deliver. There were a few moments where the acting seemed very stage-style, for lack of a better term, but still decent overall.

I would caution you that you won't like this movie if you can't connect with the source material. It's a study of marriages and why some work and others don't as well as the effects of a divorce on friends. I would recommend it mostly to people who have had long- term relationships and/or are interested in them.

TV may be mostly a wasteland these days, but every once in a while, a fine original film shows up on the tube. `Dinner With Friends' is certainly in that category. It takes the viewer deeply into the relationship between two couples and within each. They were best friends until one of the marriages hits the rocks. We see each side of that split and how it affects the other couple. Initially, sides seem to be taken along gender lines, but that reverses as each member of the separating couple finds new relationships. Is it fatal to the other marriage? Watch and see.

In a long series of original HBO movies, the predecessor being "WIT". "Dinner With Friends" turned out to be one of the best dramatic shows HBO has produced. First of all to get a top-notch director such as Norman Jewison and Pulitzer Prize winning play to work with, they were ahead before they began. All four major stars, Quaid, Kinnear, MacDowell, and Collette more than succeeded with their tasks, but it was the two long scenes between Greg and Dennis that raised this show to greater heights. Greg Kinnear has come so far in such a short time as an actor and he can hold his own with anybody now. I think I've seen every film Dennis Quaid has made and "DWF" is his finest work to date. If you've ever worked as a professional actor or director, you know that the easiest scene to play is "anger" and the most difficult is maintaining an audience's interest while you're playing low-key drama. The low-key counterplay and interaction between these two men was superb! It was often said of the late Geraldine Page that she could act in a whole movie or a three act play and know everything she was thinking if she had NO dialogue. Quaid and Kinnear were excellent listeners and responded to each other in the same way as Page. Besides the rich and powerful screenplay, the icing on the piece was placed with Dave Grusin's melodic score, a-la "The Fabulous Baker Boys". The 90+ minute movie ran the gamut of emotion for its audience. I was moved from tears to laughing out loud and anger to surprise. I only hope when next years Emmy nominations are announced, people will still remember this film in August 2001. Dennis Quaid and Greg Kinnear should be at the top of the list. Thumbs UP and four solid stars!

I happen to be someone who does like to watch the credits roll in when a movie ends. I know it's one of those silliest things a person can do after watching a movie but then when I saw the final credit, it's a made-for-TV movie from HBO. I was pretty impressed.

Gabe and Karen (Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell respectively) are food critics. They had been happily married for 12 years and have two sons as well. When one day their friend Beth (Toni Collette) was being invited over for dinner with her two sons in tow, Beth broke the news that she and her husband Tom are being separated because he was having an affair outside of the family. Given Tom is Gabe's friend and Beth is Karen's friend, married couple Gabe and Karen started to defend over what each of their best friend had did.

The way Tom questioned his wife over whatever happened at Gabe and Karen's house when she was there with the kids was a little, kind of scary. But maybe given he is a lawyer, it's just like that.

The movie even had scenes of flashback, showing the happier times between the four friends themselves. It was definitely really sweet to see those scenes.

Sometimes, the lines are not always being drawn clearly when it come to the marriage of someone you know or maybe your own's when something starts to happen. The grey area is there. Now maybe I am not of marriageable age yet, but then standing up to whatever your friend had did is one thing I am clearly aware about.

My final say? Like what I had mentioned on the title for this review.