Beatriz at Dinner

source: Beatriz at Dinner

I am a healer, spiritual and vegetarian. Now, one that knows reiki and all the therapies she mentioned, knows the universal laws. She is breaking every single one of them. She is everything but a healer. So, having said that, it makes me kind of wonder what on earth the maker of this movie was thinking. One that believes in the afterlife doe not commit suicide, as they know the principles behind it. It's actually offending this movie. All the other characters were in sync with real life. The typical money and ego driven people that don't think of anything but themselves and superficial stuff. So we have Salma Hayek playing a crazy person pretending to be spiritual and a healer, yet does anything but, in her behavior. This film maker should have not touched a subject they know nothing about, it makes it silly and pathetic. So I cannot do anything else but to rate this movie a 1 out of 10. The poor man should change his job!

"Beatriz at Dinner" (2017) was directed by Miguel Arteta. It stars Salma Hayek as Beatriz. Beatriz is an immigrant from Mexico, who is a healer. She uses massage, Rekhi, and many other alternative therapies to help her clients. She is a sensitive, caring person. One of her clients is Kathy (Connie Britton), a very wealthy trophy wife. When Beatriz's car breaks down at Kathy's house, Beatriz is invited to join a dinner party with two more couples--two men with their trophy wives. One of the men is Doug Strutt, (John Lithgow), a very, very wealthy man. Strutt represents the type of man that does evil things to his workers and to the planet. He's very good at what he does, and makes a fortune doing it. He knows what damage he is causing, and has absolutely no regrets. Naturally, a confrontation occurs at dinner between Beatriz and Doug. What happens next is the plot of the movie. The problem with the film for me is that all the characters--obviously, other than Beatriz--are stereotypes of rich people. Even despicable rich people must have some conscience somewhere. (At least I hope they do. I don't know any super-rich people.) Another problem is the setup of the film. If a car has trouble starting once, and even more trouble starting a second time, you know that it's going not going to start the third time. Also, Beatriz drinks too many glasses of wine. A healer like her probably wouldn't do that. (That's my judgment.) However, the drinking weakens the plot because it's not clear whether Beatriz would have spoken out the way she does if she weren't drunk. Beatriz is supposed to be determined and self-reliant. She shouldn't need alcohol as an excuse for expressing her opinion. Both Hayek and Lithgow are excellent actors, and they play their parts well. I kept thinking that there was a great movie in there somewhere, but director Arteta didn't know how to bring it out. So, it ended up being a pretty good movie, but not a great movie. I'm glad we saw this film, but I can only recommend it up to a point. It has an anemic IMDb rating of 6.5, which I think is too low. I considered rating it 7, but I gave it an 8 because Salma Hayek does so well in portraying Beatriz. The movie has some beautiful outdoor shots, but it will work well enough on the small screen. There are some better films out there, but there are also some that are much worse. See "Beatriz" and decide for yourself.

I'm a great fan of Miguel Arteta and Mike White's work. They travel a road that will take us to unusual places. I don't know if unusual is the right word because all of a sudden everything seems familiar, perhaps is the way Arteta and White got us there that is unusual. Opposite worlds sitting at the same table. Selma Hayek is wonderful and every though that crosses her heart and mind is perfectly visible to us. John Lithgow finds a new and disturbing face to his gallery of startling characters and Connie Britton is sublime as the hostess walking a thin line between empathy and something else. Wow! It really grabbed me and shook me. So, a highly recommended movie trying to survive in a sea of Avengers and remakes. Bravo!