The Dinner

When teenagers commit a heinous crime, how should parents react? That is the ethical dilemma propelling writer-director Oren Moverman's meandering morality play/meditation based on Dutch novelist Herman Koch's controversial 2009 bestselling novel. The Dinner begins with narrator Paul Lohman (Steve Coogan) and his wife Claire (Laura Linney) preparing to join Paul's older brother Stan (Richard Gere) and wife Katelyn (Rebecca Hall) at a pretentiously elite and outrageously expensive restaurant for dinner. Since their sibling rivalry has left them estranged since childhood, the brothers rarely socialize, but their three sons (Charlie Plummer, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Miles J. Harvey) have grown up together. Two of the brothers' respective teenage sons commit a callous hate crime that shocks the country, and while the kids' identities have not yet been discovered (although a video was posted on YouTube), their parents must decide what action to take. Pragmatic yet principled Stan seemingly has the most at stake; he's a popular U.S. congressman who is launching a campaign for governor. Troubled Paul is a history teacher whose incipient rage ripples just below his superficial calm. Patient, supportive Claire is a cancer survivor. The narrative debate is structured around the epicurean feast's successive courses, but Moverman intercuts fragmented flashbacks of the kids' childhoods and the brothers' trip to the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg, culminating in an infuriatingly enigmatic conclusion to an overly complicated and self-consciously clever film that does feature fine performances. A strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by writer-director Oren Moverman and star Laura Linney, and a photo gallery. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a bonus UltraViolet copy of the film. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an uneven film that is well-acted.] (S. Granger)