The Dinner

Review of Herman Koch's The Dinner & the film of the same name by Menno Meyjes.

I’m going to review both the book and the film (the Dutch version – the English one hasn’t even begun production yet) here. Because they are both f*cked up. Seriously. You start both of them thinking, oh this is interesting. Kind of artsy film making, some interesting writing that’s well done. But then… stuff happens. I don’t want to say what, or how it unfolds, but it’s crazy. Insane, for real crazy.

It is such an intricately woven, beautiful story and will have you thinking about it long after you’re done reading and/or watching it. The film captures the tone of the book perfectly, which makes me worried that the American version won’t quite live up to the expectations both the Dutch versions of the film and book have set up.

There’s really not much to say, except to read it, because then I can spoil the endings and we can talk about them together. Until then, I don’t want to say anything because then you won’t be able to stop thinking about it until you’ve read or watched it. Please don’t wait for the American version to come out. I’m getting chills just writing about it. So stop reading my website (but just for a bit) and go read the book. Then illegally download the film (since it’s probably not easily accessible by legal terms, I saw it at TIFF personally).

Book: 8.5/10

Film: 7/10