Movie Maven

Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003)
Starring: Michael Blieden, Matt Price, Stephanie Courtney, Annabelle Gurwitch
Written by: Michael Blieden
Directed by: Bob Odenkirk

(Photo Courtesy of sundancechannel.com)

Once in a very great while you find a movie that's surprising. And not horror or thriller movie surprising, with their so-called "plot twists," because that is far easier to achieve. I mean surprising in a way that speaks to you, that brings you in, and tells you to make yourself at home. Surprise achieved without the help of special effects or grand set design- the kind that can happen to someone walking down the street.

With that in mind, let me say that Melvin Goes to Dinner is the most surprising movie I've seen in a very long time.

Based on Michael Blieden's stage-play Phyro-Giants!, the movie is indeed about a guy named Melvin who meets three people for dinner. Most of the film is the conversation that ensues between the four relative strangers, and ranges from gut-bustingly hilarious to sad to reflective.
What is most extraordinary about these characters, and this movie, is how natural all these people are in their conversation, and their actions outside of the restaurant: they could be my friends, my family, the people I sit next to in class. Their experiences are experiences any of us could have. But their stories- their affairs, their unhappiness with their jobs, their sense of spirituality- are not mundane. They are beautiful and tragic. They are true to life, without ever seeming trite or cliched. It's so true that the "twist" at the end is simultaneously shocking and completely realistic.

The movie also has a terrific supporting cast, including Jack Black as a rational schizophrenic, David Cross as a motivational speaker and Maura Tierney as Melvin's sister. All these people are remembrances- part of the stories the four characters tell in the course of their evening. These people are distant from the four protagonists; it's as if the dinner party are in a world or a dream of their own, where openness and real honesty reigns supreme. When the waitress comes to tell them that they need to pay their bill, it's like some wonderful spell has been broken.

I bought this movie the day after viewing it. I plan to keep it for a day I need something truly surprising- something to help me pause my busy life and simply laugh and look at the beauty that can be found in anything. Even a dinner party.