wmoscaduran
This is a very interesting movie about two Italian brothers with their respective families who got involved in serious problem when their kids (a 16 years boy and a same age girl) apparently got involved in a crime. Each brother have a very different reaction and shows a very tense relationship between them. Each one of them have a different point of view of the meaning of success and have their own way to protect the people they care.Shows how teenagers can sometimes manipulate their parents and when they have money they think some other peoples lives don't really matters. The end of the movie is unexpected and overall is a very well acted movie. Has drama, suspense, good dialogues and a good job with the cameras. I definitely recommend it and planning to watch more movies from this director.
lasting1
This movie is about two diverse professional brothers who tolerate each other, but really never had a close relationship. They both lead posh lives with a monthly dinner reservation at an expensive restaurant.They really just go through the motions of tolerating, each others' company, and find that their wives and children are so out of touch with reality that their inability to love one another has transposed to their two teenage children. The boy & girl are so spoiled and entitled that any behavior is acceptable in their privileged lifestyle. The boy, son of the prominent physician is lazy and his lackluster personality is disturbing to watch. Unfortunately, the daughter of the other brother is a successful defense lawyer; and she is by far the most spoiled and deceitful of the two. She schemes a scenario about a vicious attack on a homeless woman after a drinking party that makes them murderers because of their callous, inept immorality. Both couples come to realize they've done a terrible job of raising their 16 year olds,but the dialogue with the two couples gets increasingly strained and bizarre as they try to come to terms with any remedy to change the outcome for their children's destiny. All four adults are in Crisis Mode and it's one disaster after another that clamours to the very end of the film. Very moving and thought provoking about the priorities of very successful people and how they navigate their transparent lives.
gradyharp
Ivano De Matteo wrote (with Valentina Ferlan) and directed this tough little film that takes a bit out of contemporary mores and serves is up as 'dinner'. It is classy in every aspect, the only exception being the crime that turns out to be the denouement of the story. It is a story about two brothers and their wives, and the interactions between them and their two high school age children. And the consequences that occur when the kids get into serious trouble together e manner in which the parents' relationships change with and among each other. The well scripted synopsis states, 'THE DINNER turns an ordinary meal among family into a taut morality play as the limits of polite society are tested and two brothers discover just how little they know about each other. To Massimo (Alessandro Gassman), a gutsy defense attorney, the monthly dinners with his pediatrician brother Paolo (Luigi Lo Cascio) and their wives at a posh local restaurant are a status symbol, even if the time is spent in forced familiarity and inconsequential conversation about the latest films, the day's news or their children's schoolwork. When Paolo's wife Clara (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) sees disturbing security camera footage of a homeless woman being mercilessly beaten, she worries it may be her teenage son Michele (Jacopo Olmo Antipori) and his cousin, Massimo's daughter Benni (Rosabell Laurenti Sellers), who are responsible for the gruesome attack. Their fragile balancing act of respectability and class now shattered, the two families navigate the repercussions of this senseless assault, revealing in the process the skewed priorities and moral shortcomings of their privileged, insulated perspectives.This is a film that is beautifully scripted and acted and offers a fine reminder of how fine Italian films can be.
Paul Allaer
"I Nostri Ragazzi" (2014 release from Italy; US alternative titles: "Our Boys" and "The Dinner"; 92 min.) brings the story of two brothers in Italy (one a doctor, the other a lawyer) and their respective wives and kids. As the movie opens, we get to know the brothers, Massimo and Paolo. The two couples get together for dinner once a month to catch up. Meanwhile, we also get to know the two high school age cousins, who are hanging out a lot with each other (perhaps a little too much for being of the opposite sex?). Then, one day, a savage attack against an elderly woman takes place and the security cameras capture what looks to be the two cousins. Are the cousins responsible? How will their respective parents deal with this situation? To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is a below-the-radar movie that actually does a really good job dissecting the escalating tensions between the two brothers and their respective wives and kids. The movie also compels further thinking on 'doing the right thing' and the potential costs, emotional and otherwise, not only to the potential criminals (i.e. the cousins), but also their parents, I must admit that I am not familiar with any of these Italian actors and actresses, nor am I with the movie's writer-director (Ivano de Matteo).I recently caught this movie during a transatlantic flight on Delta Airlines. I was rather impressed with the selection of movies, including a significant amount of foreign movies. I had not heard of this movie, and doubt very much that this ever reached US theaters. Glad that I had a chance to check it out, and if you are into foreign and indie movies, I'd readily recommend that you check this out. "I Nostri Ragazzi" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!