Two Marriages, Two Divorces

Curtain…

Norman Jewison’s filmography is nothing if not diverse, and one of his early 2000s credits is 2001’s Dinner With Friends, which was a TV movie for HBO. Based on the successful 1998 Donald Margulies play of the same name, the film follows two couples as infidelity and divorce become part of the conversation, and then it shows the resulting fallout. It seems like a simple story, but there’s an interesting subtext in the way the scenes are set up and filmed.

The movie opens with Connecticut couple Gabe (Dennis Quaid) and Karen (Andie MacDowell) getting their new cover photo approved at Gourmet Magazine There’s a bit of authenticity to the scene, by the way, as it features then-real life Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl, and then we see Gabe and Karen grilling lamb and cooking risotto in their home kitchen, with a lemon almond polenta cake cooling on the counter.

Everything about the first few minutes of the film flows like a symphony, not only because it’s all very presentational, but Gabe and Karen are a team and they like it that way. They work together as food writers. They finish each other’s sentences. They know when to pass each other the olive oil while they sear the lamb on one side of the stove and cook the risotto on the other side. They don’t get in each other’s way. The minutes just click along harmoniously.

Not so much for Gabe and Karen’s friends Tom (Greg Kinnear) and Beth (Toni Colette). Beth shows up with her two kids, making excuses for Tom, who’s had to fly to Washington. Dinner’s pretty normal, with Gabe and Karen talking about their trip to Italy, but while the kids are upstairs watching a movie, Beth breaks down and confesses that Tom has left her for another woman named Nancy. Gabe and Karen are naturally shocked and saddened, but also sympathetic, and the three of them commiserate over lemon almond polenta cake.

Tom’s flight gets cancelled, and after a raucous fight followed by equally raucous sex with Beth, Tom goes over to Gabe and Karen’s to explain his side of the story, or, to be more precise, angle for sympathy. Karen doesn’t want to hear it and storms off to bed, leaving Gabe and Tom to chat while Tom eats some leftover lamb, risotto, and cake.

Gabe finds himself reminiscing about the time he and Karen set Tom and Beth up one summer at Gabe and Karen’s vacation house on Martha’s Vineyard. Gabe and Karen were six weeks into their marriage back then and very romantic. Beth was a completely different person; she’s very bohemian and intense, taking long walks down to the beach and sketching the couples running through the surf. Tom has always been a flirt, even casting eyes at Karen while she preps the bluefish and corn salad for dinner.

Beth and Tom aren’t super enthused with each other, but they warm up on a level, and by the end of the flashback they’re watching the sunset with Gabe and Karen, with everyone looking very cozy. Gabe remembers all this while he quietly noodles around on a piano in the dark.

Gabe and Karen don’t see Beth or Tom for months, and by the time they do, a lot has changed. Alliances have shifted, and dirty laundry is aired, maybe a little too much. Tom moves out. Beth tries painting and ends up smearing it all. Then Gabe meets Tom for lunch while Karen meets Beth, and it’s almost as if they’re enemies or at least strangers. Gabe and Karen head off to Martha’s Vineyard that evening stunned and saddened but resolute that nothing will be the same ever again, and somehow, even though it stinks, they’re fine with it. Just because Beth and Tom went kaput doesn’t mean Gabe and Karen have to be another casualty.

OK, this is not the type of movie to watch when depressed or feeling any kind of dark emotion because it’s obviously not a happy story. A couple breaks up. It’s a little bit intense. On the bright side, the film looks sumptuous. The food alone makes it worth it, and the settings look terrific. Little caveat for parents, though: It’s not a movie for kids because there’s some nudity and quite a bit of language, including an abundance of F-bombs.

Dinner With Friends is also a wee bit obscure. I hadn’t even heard of it until my husband and I somehow got a copy at Fry’s in Sacramento, and it was so long ago I can’t remember how. It either came with another DVD or we found it in the dollar bargain bin. Who really knows.

So how is the movie besides depressing and obscure? Not bad. It’s a wee bit predictable, but it makes a lot of good points about marriage; namely, why do people get married in the first place? Is it for love or out of obligation? What, in the end, is really important? Is committment utmost, or excitement and novelty? In the end, though, as Gabe and Karen find out, there has to be a balance.

It’s also about history, friendship and betrayal. Gabe and Karen feel as if Tom and Beth have just been pretending for a decade or two and nothing they’ve gone through as best couple friends really means anything. And, in the end, the friendship was just as dysfunctional as Beth and Tom’s marriage, as Beth and Tom probably only got together to please Gabe and Karen, but nothing about their relationship was truly sincere. In the end, Tom and Beth didn’t just break up, but the friendship between the two couples is over as well.

Jewison doesn’t take a whole lot of chances with the material; it’s pretty straight one-for-one adaptation of the play except for a few minor changes, but the performances are fantastic. Even though there’s a lot of shouting, none of it is played too bombastically. It’s just allowed to be. It helps that the principals were four stellar, established actors at the tops of their respective games.

What gives it all a bit more oomph are the way the scenes are presented. Karen and Gabe are shown very fluidly. When they’re interacting, the camera moves between them with few to no cuts, showing how close they are as a couple. Their body language communicates their unity as well, as they’re always putting a hand on each other’s shoulder or something, even if it’s only in passing.

Meanwhile, Tom and Beth are the complete opposite. In their case, the cuts are choppy and abrupt because these characters are so distant from each other, with the chasm widening all the time. It’s almost a relief when they don’t share scenes anymore. Given enough time, these two would probably literally kill each other.

Norman Jewison was certainly no stranger to adapting plays for the screen, and even when it came to relatively obscure material with slightly limited appeal, he knew how to let it and everyone in it shine.

For more of the great Norman Jewison, please click here. Thanks for reading, all, and see you on Monday for the Wrapup…

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Dinner With Friends is available on DVD from Amazon, and is currently streaming on Max.

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