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| Photo by Dante |
practitioner who is invited to stay for her employer’s business dinner because her car broke down at the employer’s house. I watched it on Amazon.
My reaction during the movie:
I knew what was going to happen as soon as she tried to start her car. The whole time my stomach is just wrenching. I keep saying Why? Why did you invite her to dinner? Why did she decide to stay? Why did she cut off of the maitre’d? Why is she still drinking? Why did they not call AAA? Why did she leave the bedroom? What the hell?!
My thoughts after:
Beatriz At Dinner made me think of Mother, which was completely unrealistic, yet a commentary on realistic society. Whereas BAD (Yeah. It does spell bad) is completely realistic and trying to explore social classes and cultural bias, but is unable to fulfill that intended subject matter because there is not one likable character in this movie, not even the main character. BAD turned out to be a movie about what not to do. Do not NOT take care of your car. Do not invite a friendly service person to your very important business dinner. Do not cut off the maitre’d announcing the menu. Do not insult and throw a phone at one of the invited guests.
I found that Beatriz spent so much time trying to be this pure, vegan, healing, soulful person, that she didn’t realize how selfish she was acting during the dinner and if this movie was any indication, maybe throughout her life. She violated people’s space by giving everyone a full-body hug. She was rude to the main guest at dinner. She was inconsiderate of her so-called-friend, who invited her to stay.
I listened to the Filmweek segment about this movie and I’m apparently way off from the critics. They thought this film was great and the acting by John Lithgow and Salma Hayek was amazing. Apparently, they saw it right after the inauguration of Donald Trump, so they though Lithgow’s character was quite similar and the movie was an “allegory of the Trump era.” It seems like they saw Beatriz as a representative for the downtrodden, which again, I would have agreed with if she was only likable. I saw one trailer that made her look as intrusive as the Brady Bunch’s Alice. Then I saw another trailer that made John Lithgow’s character to be the embodiment of evil.
I also noticed two actors from the horrible, yet addictive show, Transparent in this movie. A show about a family full of unlikeable people.
It turns out the director and writer have worked together twice before. I only know about The Good Girl (2002) that okay movie with Jennifer Anniston and Jake Gyllenhaal and Enlightened, which I never watched on HBO.
On the Nitpix scale, this movie falls into the Not Fun zone. On my scale it gets two stars**.
Next day addendum: From her behavior it is clear that Beatriz was experiencing a mental breakdown that started during the massage scene. If you can relate to Beatriz and need to talk to someone, please call the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI):
800-950-NAMI, Mon - Fri 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM EST or find help in a crisis by texting NAMI to 741741.
From the way you described this movie to me I had so much trouble not cutting you off after you told me something that she had done. I can get a movie where people act or behave in unrealistic ways. They are called comedies. But from the trailer I saw last year or so this made it seem like these two strong willed people colliding after Beatriz is at a dinner party. Instead it sounds like someone made the mistake of allowing a crazy person to a gathering. She should have turned down the invite and accepted a tow truck ride. Does she only have ONE friend that could have helped her but was too busy? That says a bit more about her personality. I've known people like her in real life (and still know a couple) and I try to limit the amount of time I spend with them because it is exhausting.
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