Minor French farce is a mistitled little ditty about a about a competition amongst a group of businessmen to see who can find the stupidest person to bring to dinner. The problem is that they never attend said dinner party, which undoubtedly would have been ripe for comedy. Instead the “dinner game” is more of an excuse to bring two unlikely acquaintances together in the same room for 78 minutes. Of course nothing goes right in this comedy of errors. Actor Jacques Villeret is amusing as François Pignon, the nincompoop in question. His nuanced acting brings out a personality that is more sweet and sensitive than idiotic. That’s unexpected. Given the setting of the film, however, perhaps a more appropriate title would have been, The Time I Injured My Back and Had to Spend the Day at Home With an Idiot, but that doesn’t quite have the same ring now does it?
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This movie was BAD. I would not recommend this to anyone. 78 minutes felt like 2 hours.
Was this the inspiration for DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS?
Yes, exactly. That’s what inspired me to watch this. From what I can tell from the trailer, they’ve made some improvements. It looks like they actually make it to the dinner party in the remake. Paul Rudd has some reservations about bringing an “idiot” to the party to make fun off. Naturally Steve Carell overacts as a complete imbecile in the American remake.
I didn’t see this one but saw another french one that’s similar. Something about a family who invites their friends over to accompany them to face their rich father, and all sorts of skeletons come out and thus emotional confrontations. Can’t remember the name of it but it was quite a awhile ago.