Dinner With Friends proves that all you really need to make an entertaining film is a good script a good director and a handful of good actors. The Director is the venerable Norman Jewison who directs Donald Marguiles' Pulitzer Prize winning play with the deft touch of a master. And the four leads Dennis Quaid, Andie MacDowell, Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear with minor exceptions acquit themselves as well as ever. Collette gives flawless performances now as a matter of habit, and Kinnear isn't far behind. This is one of the best things I've seen MacDowell do for a while and Quaid is solid, except he's developed this odd confused look now. The same confused look that won him so much acclaim in his unbelievably overrated performance in Far From Heaven. Always liked Quaid, thought he sucked in that one. Come to think of it Far From Heaven was a terribly overrated film period. I'll take The Hours any day.

Being adapted from a play (which Marguiles' did himself) you come to expect a lot of verbosity, some stagy dialogue and a good bit of lofty diatribes that are beyond the pale of anyone's normal conversational skills - but given that I really enjoyed this film. Quaid and his wife MacDowell portray successful food critics and gourmands. They have two children and have made a fine life for themselves what with their mutual passions and generally caring and thoughtful relationship. Years ago they introduced Collette to Quaid's close friend Kinnear an attorney - the two soon married and as a foursome they spent much of the salad days of their thirties as the closest of friends. Raising their children as friends and spending sun-drenched holidays at Martha's Vineyard.

As the film begins the four are supposed to meet for dinner, as Quaid and McDowell have just returned home from Italy and are eager to share a few new culinary skills with their friends. It is a rainy night and when the knock on the door comes, Collete has arrived with only the kids in tow as Kinnear is ostensibly off on business. It is obvious that Collette is troubled and before desert she eventually breaks down and confessing that Kinnear is leaving her for a stewardess.

This shocking revelation sets into motion a very observant and thought-provoking examination of love-relationships, the difficulties inherent in keeping a marriage vital, as well as the strange dynamics that can emerge when couples are forced to choose between estranged friends. Any adult will find themselves identifying with one or more of the characters and their particular situations and Jewison does a magnificent job of demonstrating the age old truism that there are always two sides to every story.

I shant give away any further plot mechanics, but I'll say that this is a rare film in these times - A Scene From Two Marriages, with shades of Woody Allen's Mid 80s work. A film that dares to take an unblinking look into the nature of our relationships and the sacrifices that we make for them and the pain that results when they do not turn out happily ever after.