LE DÎNER DE CONS (The Dinner Game, 1998) **1/2 Not that other nationalities aren't progressed in the art of idiotic games as entertainment for petty minds, but only the French would think of making a film like this. The self-professed "cool people" (who play golf and collect bad art) asseverate their superiority by inviting the biggest idiots whom they can find to dinner. On Wednesdays, no less. The cool ones, of course, are somewhat less god-like than they like to believe; or perhaps the Gods are more so. It's the kind of thought that may be a genuine sin, now that I think on it; trying to figure out who the most boring dinner guest would be-you can't wallow in the muck long before it turns to quicksand. Francis Veber provides the Parisian alternative: a casanova in advertising, a tax assessor, bad wine, questionable medical advice, an omelet (that was part of it for me, anyway), and the confusion that should be celebrated in others. I enjoyed the movie but you've got to forgive me (perhaps I suffer a portion of the same disease), I didn't see a romance worth saving, a piece of art worth keeping from a yard sale, or anyone I could stand for more than two biers, max.
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