The Dinner
Orchard, The | Release Date: May 5, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 30 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
15
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
VarietyOwen GleibermanFeb 18, 2017
Moverman balances the potential for staginess with his flowing cinematic bravura; he keeps surprising you, and he gives the drama a dash of poison elegance. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 4, 2017
There are bumps along the way, transitions from one medium to another will do that, but this filmmaker and his fierce foursome won't be done till they take a piece out of you. It's a gripping psychological thriller with a sting in its tail. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 28, 2017
I love the way the film sets us up with “types” — ambitious, narcissistic politico, “trophy” wife, loyal spouse, doting dad — and thoroughly upends them time and again. Read full review
83
The PlaylistJessica KiangFeb 18, 2017
This is a film that glories in juxtaposition, as exchanges of bestial ferocity hiss back and forth in an excruciatingly elegant destination restaurant, and as poisonously feral barbs are traded across a table laden with elaborately effete hors d’oeuvres. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiMay 3, 2017
The quartet of actors are all high-caliber pros, and the performances are marvelous, especially Linney, whose Claire hides depths of self-deception. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 4, 2017
As you might expect from this cast, all four leads are simply outstanding. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMay 4, 2017
The film’s strength is its cast, and each of them finds moments of truth. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMay 4, 2017
For all the actors’ commitment and ferocity, the experience they offer feels less like a confrontation with the anxieties of modern life than a plush, moody escape. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 4, 2017
There are moments in The Dinner, Oren Moverman’s tense drama based on the Herman Koch novel, in which you sit back and watch four terrific actors go at it. There just aren’t enough of them. Read full review
68
TheWrapBen CrollFeb 18, 2017
At once a darkly comic social satire, a pitch-black moral thriller and an earnest plea to recognize mental illness, The Dinner is a seven-layer dip overflowing with compelling individual ingredients that, when mixed together, make the finished dish awfully difficult to digest. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 18, 2017
Moverman’s discordant structure constantly veers from clumsy moments to fascinating exchanges. As an experiment, it never finds a complete shape, and ends on a frustratingly abrupt note. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorMay 4, 2017
Besides psychological drama, besides thriller, social satire is another significant element in this sometimes erratic film and it’s one that, surprisingly and belatedly, rises to the top: Anyone who started out thinking The Dinner was a thriller will probably be disappointed when the evening wraps up with an ending that is more farce than denouement. Read full review
60
Total FilmJames MottramDec 11, 2017
Loaded with flashbacks, it’s unevenly mounted but kept watchable by the lively script and classy cast. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredLauren Humphries-BrooksApr 27, 2017
An imperfect but fascinating film, The Dinner's stellar cast delivers a deeply troubling and psychologically complex treatment of class and family. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyFeb 18, 2017
These characters get ghastly fast. It’s the pace and panic of modernity Moverman grasps best as morally corrosive forces: the soft ping of iPhone email alerts never letting us be, and consciences wiped clean as quickly as the next news cycle whips around. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijFeb 18, 2017
A high-carat cast...tears into the juicy material with relish for the most part, but by trying to keep the prolonged sit-down affair from becoming excessively stagey, Moverman adds too many distracting flashbacks to maintain the original’s hard-hitting and well-aimed gut punch. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisMay 4, 2017
Despite frequent flashbacks and Bobby Bukowski’s richly dimensional photography, the movie has a static, stagy look that amplifies the oppressiveness of its increasingly unpleasant exchanges. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 4, 2017
The Dinner wants to chill bloodstreams by revealing what decent, civilized people — the kind that adopt children from other countries, consider their politics liberal, and wine and dine in high class — are truly capable of. But as food for thought goes, that’s pretty lukewarm. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisMay 4, 2017
As we watch these four pros in action, we find ourselves wanting fewer flashbacks and more time with all of the folks in one spot. That would have been a satisfying meal in itself. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 4, 2017
On paper, writer-director Oren Moverman’s The Dinner has all the ingredients for what should be a four-star feast. But from the opening course, it’s clear that something has gone wrong in the kitchen. Moverman, the chef, has tried to make his creation too clever and complicated. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 4, 2017
The finished product feels tonally indistinct and plays as a bit of a grind. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 3, 2017
An acrid family affair that has been aggressively over-directed by the talented Oren Moverman (“The Messenger”) and brought to intermittent life by a very good cast. Read full review
50
Village VoiceKristen Yoonsoo KimMay 3, 2017
The beauty of a single-location thriller is how the tension escalates in containment, but Moverman fails to seize that built-in advantage. Read full review
50
Screen DailyLee MarshallFeb 18, 2017
In Moverman’s hands, it becomes a contemporary American fable about savagery lurking behind civilised facades, about class and racial divisions in a country that calls itself united, and about ethical vacuums in a connected, online society. It’s also an unbalanced, uneven ride, a distracting hot and cold shower of intense scenes featuring four terrific actors and long, meandering passages of flashback filler. Read full review
42
The Film StageRory O'ConnorFeb 18, 2017
You get the sense that Moverman may just have bitten off a little more than he can chew. Read full review
40
EmpireJonathan PileDec 12, 2017
What promised so much, delivers so little thanks to a script that too often veers from the point. A missed opportunity. Read full review
40
Time OutCath ClarkeDec 5, 2017
The performances are thoughtful, and like a pinch of chilli, heat things up from time to time. But director Oren Moverman’s portrait of smug, toxic privilege misses its mark – and at the end of two long hours, this feels about as fresh as last night’s chips. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMay 5, 2017
An incredibly frustrating movie, almost purposefully so. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 1, 2017
The film is shrilly, luridly, dully, and unremittingly ugly, preaching to a choir that it also demonizes. Read full review
20
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 18, 2017
The sclerotic staginess of The Dinner means this is one to miss. Read full review
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