Review of My Dinner with Andre (1981) by Jeff S — 12 Oct 2017

I didn't square this away as simply a "boring" film. I don't bash it because it is all dialog-driven in one location. The main problems with this film are these:

1) the subject matter of the conversation jumps all over the place so often it is hard to keep track of where Andre's story went. I am sure there is some central point to the overall theme, but there was so much jumping about that it is extremely difficult to stay on any one thought train and come to a conclusion about anything being discussed.

2) Andre Gregory was not the best actor for this role. During the movie, I kept comparing his looks to Roy Schneider. Then I started wondering what Schneider (right in his prime in 1981) would have done with the role. While Gregory is obviously an accomplished thespian, his personal delivery dynamics are completely wrong for this role. His delivery is quite wooden and matter-of-fact, which, given the subject matter of his stories and the confined space of the characters, is not the proper way to deliver his stories to properly dramatically engage the audience for this length of time. The lines are all delivered with the same inflection and cadence, neither excited about his adventures nor upset about them, just telling them as if he didn't actually live them, but simply recounted some else's tale instead of his own. Monotonous is the word that comes to mind. The point of acting is to bring out emotion in the audience, and I initially liked what was being said, appreciating the stories when I was supposed to. But as the stories started jumping all over the place and the delivery *never* varied, I lost interest.

3) This script was too long. Kudos to the writers for coming up with this much dialog. But really, this script was culled together from taped conversations with each other over the preceding months. So it's a 'best of' their real friendship. This needed some serious editing. While the stories are interesting, too much is too much. It was like being full at a meal and ending up as the gluttony victim in Seven.

4) All that being said, I get what they were trying to do. I think this film takes a much deeper appreciation of theater (not movies) to grasp the "genius". I think most moviegoers, myself included, do not possess that. Unless you do, I would skip this movie.