Dinner with Friends (2001) (TV)

Director:

Norman Jewison

Writers (WGA):

Donald Margulies (play)
Donald Margulies (teleplay)

Release Date:

11 August 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Can Your Marriage Survive, Your Best Friends Divorce.

Plot:

A husband and wife reevaluate their marriage after their closest friends, another couple decide to split up after twelve years.

Plot Keywords:

Marriage | Food | Friendship | Friend | New York City

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 3 nominations

Cast

Dennis Quaid	...	Gabe
Andie MacDowell	...	Karen
Greg Kinnear	...	Tom
Toni Collette	...	Beth
Taylor Emerson	...	Danny
Jake Fritz	...	Isaac
Holliston Coleman	...	Laurie
Angus T. Jones	...	Sammy
Beau Holden	...	Al
Dina Morrone	...	Hostess
Ruth Reichl	...	Herself
Romulo Yanes	...	Gourmet Photographer

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

94 min | Argentina:107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Finland:K-3 | USA:R | Argentina:13 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Malibu, California, USA

Company:

HBO Films

Trivia:

The play "Dinner with Friends" won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2000.

Goofs:

Continuity: 15 minutes into the movie, just before Gabe says "Beth, I'm sorry", the clock in the kitchen reads 8:50. A few seconds later, the clock in the foyer reads 8:20.

Quotes:

Karen: But those were such happy times! We saw them practically every weekend. When would she have time to have an affair?
Gabe: I don't know. During the week?

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 54th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (2002) (TV)

It's about the machinations of friendship and how a couple handle their growing old together.

This movie is really about Gabe and Karen (Quaid and MacDowell) - how they tackle life as a couple. The movie begins with the collapse of Tom and Beth's (Kinnear and Collette) marriage, and proceeds to show the reason. Tom and Beth are no different from any other couple who eventually drift apart after years of marriage, but the real focus here is Gabe and Karen's hand in their inevitable parting.

We learn from a flashback that Tom and Beth were initially best friends of Gabe and Karen's respectively. They were set up to fall for each other. The setting was perfect - a beach house, a sunset, and both were in the thirties and ripe for marriage. Later however, we gather the truth about each person, and why the marriage was foredoomed to failure. What is impressive though, is that despite the unravelling of each person's flaws, we don't despise the characters. The flaws are realistic and it's easy for us to find them in our friends and perhaps in ourselves.

Tom and Beth are full of resentment, towards each other and towards Gabe and Karen. They have recently realized that they were not meant for each other, and they were just products of Gabe and Karen's subconscious manipulations. They had fallen into Gabe and Karen's perfect setting - having their best friends fall in love with each other and living out the rest of their lives together as a foursome. Tom and Beth even have two daughters as a foil to Gabe and Karen's two sons!

The movie reveals something I've noticed in many friendships. There is a dominant personality and there is a submissive one. The dominant friend has a dream of how his life should be and his submissive friend falls agreeably into the role created for him in that dream. It is like a script the dominant friend has written. He naturally writes himself into the Lead Actor role and he proceeds to create the role of Supporting Actor for his submissive friend.

Gabe and Karen's script involved growing old together as a foursome. The plot of their story had been written for four actors. Unfortunately they hadn't counted on Tom and Beth's withdrawal from their roles as supporting actors. Deprived of their backboard, Gabe and Karen are suddenly alone, and they realize that they have no idea how to handle their encroaching middle-age years without their four-way script beneath them. More importantly, they realize that they haven't had the need to communicate solely with each other until now and they have no idea how to do it.

The ending of the movie doesn't tell you if they wind up solving their problem. It just shows you how they tackle it - they begin to rewrite the script. However this time, there are no supporting actor roles as fallbacks. They have to learn to just rely upon each other as they grow old together.

My rating: 10/10