Post by mikef6 on Aug 6, 2017 3:52:46 GMT
Beatriz at Dinner / Miguel Arteta (2017). It has been said that the courtroom drama is a favorite dramatic situation because it represents a direct conflict of ideas. If the courtroom is the top method for this kind of drama, the Dinner Party has to also be close to the top choice as people are confined to one space. Beatriz (Salma Hayek) is a New Age healer and masseuse who was born in Mexico but lives in L.A. She lives in an ethnic neighborhood and keeps goats in her back yard. After helping a teenage girl through the rigors of chemo via her natural methods, the girl’s rich parents continued to employ her. One day, after driving across the metropolis to the gated development on the coast where the parents live, she gives a massage to the mother, Cathy (Connie Britton). When she goes to leave, her car won’t start and her mechanic friend can’t come until late. Cathy invites Beatriz to stay for the dinner party she has planned for her husband and two other couples that evening. Beatriz is reluctant to accept but finally joins the crowd that includes high-powered couple like Alex and Shannon (Jay Duplass and Chloë Sevigny) and Doug and Jeana Strutt (John Lithgow and Amy Landecker), Doug Strutt being the well-known rich wheeler-dealer. It is the clash of world views between Beatriz and Strutt that propels the talk. Don’t get me wrong. The smart script by Mike White doesn’t set up a saintly David against an evil Goliath. The opinions of business, capitalism, and privilege expressed by the Rich White People are pretty much the same as they have been since the United States came into existence. There are things that some viewers might even agree with. Cathy thinks of herself as a kind, liberal person and in many ways she is, but there is also, in the back of her mind, that division of classes that can’t be crossed. The script, though, presents her and the other characters as persons, not as concepts. This is a true conversation starter. Hayek and Lithgow give the best performances I have seen so far in a film from 2017. Britton is also excellent. If I have one caveat, it comes in the last minute or so. The ending, I believe, is a totally out of character act. That aside, highly recommended.