"Oh, My Precious Lifestyle!"
Added 11/10/2009
One of the reviewers here stated that this is a movie "we can all relate to."
But we *can't* all relate to it. Why? Because it's demographically impossible for all of us to relate to it. ... We aren't all yuppies. ... We aren't all upper middle class. ... We don't all have jobs like the people in this movie.
Here's a movie that, hopefully, the filmmakers want a wide variety of economic classes to watch, and yet it's about a class of people whose lives and experiences are light years removed from the day-to-day realities of millions of Americans -- and certainly light years away from the "felt-lives" of millions of people throughout the world.
So how is it that the people who like this movie "relate" to it. The fact is, they don't relate to it. They suspend their disbelief by pretending that the people in this movie can actually live in our world completely unaware, completely unaffected and completley unconcerned about the social, political and economic forces that exist around them.
Of course this is not to say that Hollywood pays much attention to these powerful (perhaps deterministic) social, political and economic forces; they rarely do. But this movie wants to take you to La-La Land and lock the door behind you.
Another reviewer claimed that this movie is about "human nature." Are you serious?! This movie's relationship to "human nature" is akin to learning about a culture by driving by a newsstand in a torrential rain.
Even people who fall into the socioeconomic class of the people in this movie aren't in any way enlightened by the condescending drivel that passes for dialogue.
Here's a rather telling example of what this movie is all about.
ANDIE MACDOWELL'S CHARACTER (to Greg Kinnear's character, Greg Kinnear's character having admitted he cheated on his wife): "I mean, it's so squalid (having an affair with) -- A STEWARDESS!"
GREG KINNEAR'S CHARACTER: "A stewardess! Is that what she (my wife) told you? A stewardess! She's not a stewardess, she's a travel agent."
Now let's stop and think about the composition of the audience watching this film. ...
No doubt the filmmakers want this movie to appeal to a wide, demographically broad-based audience. So who, pray tell, is apt to be in that multicultural audience?
Maybe some airline stewardesses.
Maybe ome people who work at MacDonald's.
Maybe a few million people who, given the realities of our "global economy," have low-paying dead-end jobs.
What are the characters in this movie saying about such people? Answer: That they're *below* them. That having an affair with a travel agent is one thing (a rung higher up on the economic hierarchy) but A STEWARDESS?!
And what might they say about a cab driver or a hod carrier or typist or a film cutter?
It reminds me of the scene in "Five Easy Pieces" where Jack Nicholson, the oh-so-precious *artiste,* bawls out the waitress for not giving him precisely what he wants at the diner. ... But what about *her* dignity; what about how *her* day is going; what about *her* worth as a human being?
The movie is quite clear about the waitress. She doesn't count. She's just a waitress.
-- "A STEWARDESS!"
-- "Is that what she told you? She's not a stewardess -- she's a travel agent!"
And it's from characters like this that you're going to learn something about human nature? It's from characters like this that you're going to learn something about "relationships"? These are selfish, condescending, consumer-obsessed idiots. The word "idiot" coming from the ancient Greeks and meaning people only concerned with their id drives -- the drive for food, shelter and clothing -- albeit in the case of these latte-sipping yuppies, *fancy* food, *fancy* clothes and *fancy* shelter. Notwithstanding, idiots just the same.
Notice, too, how Denis Quaid's character is drawn by the screenwriter. He's pussy-whipped. "Oh honey"-this and "oh honey"- that. I have the feeling the screenwriter pussy-whipped the Dennis Quaid character to immunize himself from being criticized as "not relating to women." So what does he do, he p-whips one of the husbands.
Most couples who question their relationship with their mate (surprise!) also taking into account not just the relationship but everything else that's "outside over there." Meaning: the social, political and economic forces that movies like this assiduously AVOID!!!
This is what Plato called "The Big Lie," that is to say, "the lie to the soul" that movies like this trade on.
What I found offensive about this movie is how seriously it takes itself. How it purports to advise the audience on love, marriage, sex, communication, relationships. The list goes on and obnoxiously on.
And who are the people who made this movie? Is their day similar to your day? No. Are their realities your realities? No.
Instead, they've willfully and diligently insulated themselves from what average ordinary people experience in their lives -- and then have the nerve to turn around and tell us how we should live our lives. About which they know or desire to know absolutely zero.
Look at the faces of these four characters. Do they look like they've experienced the same world, the same realities you've experienced?
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Great Movie!
Added 2/13/2009
Loved this movie! A ton of great stars and terrific dialogue~
Very reminisant of "The Big Chill!"
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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dinner with friends DVD
Added 10/3/2007
A great cast, a great set of dialogs, human nature and frailties, misconceptions, what more can I say, a captivating movie worth watching over and over
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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For Couples and Their Friends (3.5 stars)
Added 8/26/2007
Intellectual and poignant, this is a film that deals with one of the most delicate relationships of all- "couple-friends." Most of us have, or have had, "those friends"- they are the "other couple," they got together around the same time as you, you see them almost every weekend, they watch your pets and collect your mail when you go out of town. You have similar situations(house, children, or something that equates that). You keep each other going when the other pair hits a rough patch. But how well do you really know what is going on in someone else's relationship? How much does someone else's situation affect your own?
This film poses and tackles those very questions. Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell find out that their best friends Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette are getting divorced. What seemed to be a relationship very much like their own is suddenly dissolving. This dissolution calls into question their own relationship's stability, as well as their relationship with Kinnear & Collette. How well did Quaid/MacDowell really know Kinnear/Collette if they, the couple's BEST friends, did not see the true nature of their problems? What does it say about their own relationship that the couple who seemed to be in such a similar situation as theirs are deciding their problems are too deep to continue the marriage?
There is a great scene toward the end of the film where Kinnear and Quaid go out for a drink months after the divorce and Kinnear tells Quaid "Oh, c'mon, Gabe, I know how it is- I've heard YOU complain" and Quaid tells him "that's what married friends do- we complain, we talk about wives- and then we go home." This fundamental difference between the two friends, and by extension the two couuples, is something that comes up repeatedly. Which couple was right? Is there a right and wrong choice? How does someone else's life choices affect you? Should it affect you?
Your best friends break up, and you are left somewhere in the middle. Do you take sides? What happens to the friendship when the circumstances are no longer the thing you have most in common? Can you even stay friends?
This is a great film- one that was entirely underrated. The performances are excellent- Kinnear, Quaid, and Collette especially.
Seeing this performed on the stage would've been amazing!
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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This movie delivers
Added 5/10/2007
The cast is strong - the script is smart, funny and something that we all can relate to in one way or another. I was so glad that I fell upon it at Blockbuster - didn't expect it to be so good, and now it is one of my favorites. Enjoy!
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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"Oh, My Precious Lifestyle!"
Added 11/10/2009
One of the reviewers here stated that this is a movie "we can all relate to."
But we *can't* all relate to it. Why? Because it's demographically impossible for all of us to relate to it. ... We aren't all yuppies. ... We aren't all upper middle class. ... We don't all have jobs like the people in this movie.
Here's a movie that, hopefully, the filmmakers want a wide variety of economic classes to watch, and yet it's about a class of people whose lives and experiences are light years removed from the day-to-day realities of millions of Americans -- and certainly light years away from the "felt-lives" of millions of people throughout the world.
So how is it that the people who like this movie "relate" to it. The fact is, they don't relate to it. They suspend their disbelief by pretending that the people in this movie can actually live in our world completely unaware, completely unaffected and completley unconcerned about the social, political and economic forces that exist around them.
Of course this is not to say that Hollywood pays much attention to these powerful (perhaps deterministic) social, political and economic forces; they rarely do. But this movie wants to take you to La-La Land and lock the door behind you.
Another reviewer claimed that this movie is about "human nature." Are you serious?! This movie's relationship to "human nature" is akin to learning about a culture by driving by a newsstand in a torrential rain.
Even people who fall into the socioeconomic class of the people in this movie aren't in any way enlightened by the condescending drivel that passes for dialogue.
Here's a rather telling example of what this movie is all about.
ANDIE MACDOWELL'S CHARACTER (to Greg Kinnear's character, Greg Kinnear's character having admitted he cheated on his wife): "I mean, it's so squalid (having an affair with) -- A STEWARDESS!"
GREG KINNEAR'S CHARACTER: "A stewardess! Is that what she (my wife) told you? A stewardess! She's not a stewardess, she's a travel agent."
Now let's stop and think about the composition of the audience watching this film. ...
No doubt the filmmakers want this movie to appeal to a wide, demographically broad-based audience. So who, pray tell, is apt to be in that multicultural audience?
Maybe some airline stewardesses.
Maybe ome people who work at MacDonald's.
Maybe a few million people who, given the realities of our "global economy," have low-paying dead-end jobs.
What are the characters in this movie saying about such people? Answer: That they're *below* them. That having an affair with a travel agent is one thing (a rung higher up on the economic hierarchy) but A STEWARDESS?!
And what might they say about a cab driver or a hod carrier or typist or a film cutter?
It reminds me of the scene in "Five Easy Pieces" where Jack Nicholson, the oh-so-precious *artiste,* bawls out the waitress for not giving him precisely what he wants at the diner. ... But what about *her* dignity; what about how *her* day is going; what about *her* worth as a human being?
The movie is quite clear about the waitress. She doesn't count. She's just a waitress.
-- "A STEWARDESS!"
-- "Is that what she told you? She's not a stewardess -- she's a travel agent!"
And it's from characters like this that you're going to learn something about human nature? It's from characters like this that you're going to learn something about "relationships"? These are selfish, condescending, consumer-obsessed idiots. The word "idiot" coming from the ancient Greeks and meaning people only concerned with their id drives -- the drive for food, shelter and clothing -- albeit in the case of these latte-sipping yuppies, *fancy* food, *fancy* clothes and *fancy* shelter. Notwithstanding, idiots just the same.
Notice, too, how Denis Quaid's character is drawn by the screenwriter. He's pussy-whipped. "Oh honey"-this and "oh honey"- that. I have the feeling the screenwriter pussy-whipped the Dennis Quaid character to immunize himself from being criticized as "not relating to women." So what does he do, he p-whips one of the husbands.
Most couples who question their relationship with their mate (surprise!) also taking into account not just the relationship but everything else that's "outside over there." Meaning: the social, political and economic forces that movies like this assiduously AVOID!!!
This is what Plato called "The Big Lie," that is to say, "the lie to the soul" that movies like this trade on.
What I found offensive about this movie is how seriously it takes itself. How it purports to advise the audience on love, marriage, sex, communication, relationships. The list goes on and obnoxiously on.
And who are the people who made this movie? Is their day similar to your day? No. Are their realities your realities? No.
Instead, they've willfully and diligently insulated themselves from what average ordinary people experience in their lives -- and then have the nerve to turn around and tell us how we should live our lives. About which they know or desire to know absolutely zero.
Look at the faces of these four characters. Do they look like they've experienced the same world, the same realities you've experienced?
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Great Movie!
Added 2/13/2009
Loved this movie! A ton of great stars and terrific dialogue~
Very reminisant of "The Big Chill!"
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
dinner with friends DVD
Added 10/3/2007
A great cast, a great set of dialogs, human nature and frailties, misconceptions, what more can I say, a captivating movie worth watching over and over
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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