SummaryBeatriz (Salma Hayek), an immigrant from a poor town in Mexico, has drawn on her innate kindness to build a career as a health practitioner in Los Angeles. Doug Strutt (John Lithgow) is a cutthroat, self-satisfied billionaire. When these two opposites meet at a dinner party, their worlds collide and neither will ever be the same.
SummaryBeatriz (Salma Hayek), an immigrant from a poor town in Mexico, has drawn on her innate kindness to build a career as a health practitioner in Los Angeles. Doug Strutt (John Lithgow) is a cutthroat, self-satisfied billionaire. When these two opposites meet at a dinner party, their worlds collide and neither will ever be the same.
This queasily funny and suspenseful movie is more than a smirking exercise in ideological deck stacking, and to praise it for its political relevance would be to understate its subtlety and specificity.
This is an incredible independent film so no reason for the "trolls" on here trying to slam it probably just because of its perceived politics which are debatable, but that's what a great film does--makes you talk about it afterwards. Clocking in at just over 80 minutes, proof that you can edit a film that short and still it just works--the plot, acting, dialogue, everything--even the cinematography and dream sequences she has are beautiful. And, supporting cast is also brilliant. There are very few mainstream/lamestream studio films that I could say that about these days!
I did not expect this movie to be so absorbing or to take on such a compelling subject. Salma Hayek has delivered some emotive performances but maybe nothing quite as personally intense as she gives here. No movie can please everyone and this one won’t change that but, for the sensitive viewer, it certainly should offer quite a bit to contemplate. Mike White’s script effectively studies the differences between those who have much (like, way more than they need) and those who care dearly for what little they have. Performances are uniformly good but some have tried to draw comparisons between Trump, and the character of the high-profile building developer played by John Lithgow but, any number of ultra-rich opportunists fit this image, including the Clinton's and Obama's of this world – so I can’t buy that interpretation whatever.
Miguel Arteta’s direction keeps these observations on track while the strikingly stylish imagery delivered by director of photography Wyatt Garfield, is nothing short of poetic (no cheap handheld shots to spoil this potent character study) Lovely descriptive music, scored by Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh (mixed with other compositions) adds just the right touch for this thoughtful examination **** of self-obsessed business people - meeting for dinner & playing the ‘relationship’ game (spelt big $) along with an outsider who wears her heart on her sleeve, and calls these deals out for what she feels they are. The ending is somewhat ambiguous and I felt the story deserved a little better - did the writer not have the courage to take on today's business ethics or is this just another example of the now trendy --woman on the verge theme-- currently popular with movie makers? Some aspects of this story brought to mind another compelling ‘dinner’ film: “Wetherby” from ’85, written by David Hare. Beatriz’ is well worth watching and even deserves to be revisited. Some language here and there.
Hayek turns Beatriz into her own breed of wonder woman, Lithgow’s Strutt is definitely a super villain of sorts and their head-to-head battle is clearly worth seeing even if, in real life, it has only begun.
This is neither a simple satire of privilege nor a mock-provocative comedy of diversity and its discontents. It’s about a clash of values, about unresolvable contradictions. Or to put it another way, about good and evil.
Somehow, the blistering comedy you would expect never quite manifests, and instead we get a lot of on-the-nose sermonizing and weak-tea social commentary.
I wish the ending had been different, but for me there was hope that Beatriz' warning to Strutt's gang will come true and they will learn: It WILL touch you, she said with conviction. The damage they are doing, the revolutionary backlash, the dying of the planet will affect you 1% eventually too. And I think the candles they sent obliviously out hinted at one of the immediate ways they would be touched. Some people feel others' pain too much to last long, and Salma shows this in her face very well.
Donald Trump doesn't star in "Beatriz At Dinner" though in every way, except physically, John Lithgrow is him with the name Doug Strutt. Strutt is a billionaire owner of luxury hotels, and golf courses, around the world among other buildings, who will ask Beatriz (Salma Hayek), after mistaking her for 'help' to get him a drink, who is corrected and proceeds to ask Beatriz if she is in this country legally.
Strutt cares for no one, including his third wife, besides himself and he does anything to get rid of people or things that get in his way. He cares nothing for the environment or society unless it benefits him. He is the 1% of society who is the dinner guest of honor, with his wife Jeana (Amy Landecker), at the home of business partner Grant (David Warshofsky) and Cathy (Connie Britton) which also includes their young new lawyer Alex (Jay Duplass) and his wife Shannon (Chloe Sevigny).
Beatriz is a masseuse and healer working mainly for a cancer clinic and has private clients such as Cathy who the former cared for the latter's daughter when, as a teenager, had cancer. Cathy looks upon Beatriz as a friend and when she is getting ready to leave only to find that he car won't start and she has to call a friend for help who won't be able to arrive for awhile it is only natural that Cathy asks her to join the dinner party and Beatriz accepts. Beatriz lives alone with her 2 dogs and a goat who she is very protective of including keeping the goat in a pen in her bedroom who she is afraid her neighbor might kill. She is, I believe divorced and may have a daughter who died.
It isn't long before Beatriz and Doug butt heads especially after he shows a picture of his having killed a rhinoceros in Africa and boasting about it.
"Beatriz At Dinner" is a short movie, only 83 minutes, but in this case should have been longer. Did Beatriz have a daughter and is the telephone call to her? What does the white squid have to do with anything? It is the scenes between Hayek and Lithgow, and they are excellent, that hold the audience's attention but there are too few of them. And what is the meaning of the ending? Where and why do the other dinner guests fit in to all of this and why not a scene, even a short one, between Beatriz and the two household helpers?
"Beatriz At Dinner" is an interesting film with rich performances by Salma Hayek and John Lithgow but doesn't go far enough into what could be a meaningful film!
This is NOT a comedy; it has almost no humor. Hayek is downtrodden, depressed and devastated throughout. Lithgow is amoral, pompous and boasting. Neither is interesting or entertaining. There is no ethical question; she is correct and he is evil. Although I completely agree with Hayek's character, it was a struggle to get through this film. And then the end was terrible, almost a flip-off for watching the whole thing. The worst film for both stars.