"My Dinner with Andre" - Film Review

Films are often obsessed with getting somewhere; to propulsively lead us to the final scene. But when a film plots itself in such a way that it’s all build up to that one moment, the journey itself feels a little less meaningful. The films, and many films that don’t quite understand the value of a plotting, often stage themselves to tell a story and hit all the necessary narrative beats we’ve come to expect from a film. But these beats, in turns, can appear artificial or superficial. The question of “what does it all mean?” remains unanswered. A really well-wrought, tightly constructed story can work incredibly effectively, but usually those films also have some extra umph setting them apart.

My Dinner with Andre doesn’t contain your typical plot. There’s one set, a New York City restaurant, that the film primarily stays in and we stay there for almost the entirety of screentime besides a brief beginning and ending voiced over montage. For the majority of the film’s story it’s not entirely clear where the movie is going. If this were an average, ordinary film, the scene at the restaurant would be brief, minimalized, infantilized, reduced to the point of short hand and of abstraction. Perhaps it would be the catalyst to snap Wallace Shawn (playing himself) out of his stupor and cause him to realize the wonders of life or some other formaldehyded, stock cliché.

Andre is a story about a man whose been avoiding a friend he’s since lost contact with (Andre Gregory playing himself) and rediscovering why he was friends with the guy in the first place. Wallace is hesitant about the dinner; he believes he’s gonna want to get in and out, but then Andre starts recounting his worldly adventures, an odd theater shop in Poland, an intriguing trip to Tibet, a bizarre time in the Saharan Desert. As he realizes the rumors he’s heard about Andre have misguided his perceptions, he’s slowly won over by Andre’s peculiar charm and abundant storytelling capabilities (muchof the first half of the film is just Wallace listening to Andre talk at length). Soon Wallace starts opening up, revealing a side of himself he’s often nervous to show. They get to talking about the problems of modern living and theater, trading worldviews and enjoying good, meaningful conversation. Before either knows it the rest of the restaurant is empty and they’ve talked the night away.

The film works so well because it’s unpredictable. It isn’t really worried about getting from point A to point B to point C. Rather, it’s content just to observe these two interesting people and the experience they share.  

My Dinner with Andre is an unconventional but wonderful character piece carried by strong performances from its two leads. 

Grade:B+