"The Party"

I saw a trailer for the movie "The Party" a few weeks ago, and I thought it looked interesting.  Then it got a four star review in the Post-Gazette.  So on a Monday afternoon with nothing better to do, Mrs. Grandstander and I sought his one out and saw it.

It has been described as movie in the "dinner-party-gone-wrong" genre, which I didn't realize was a movie genre until I started checking out online reviews of it.  Those reviews were of two extremes, some absolutely eviscerated it, others hailed it as the greatest thing since Bill Shakespeare started putting pen to paper.  

Here are my thoughts....

• It was short, only 71 minutes long.
• It was like watching a filmed stage play.  In fact, it would probably be better as a play.
• It was filmed in black and white, and, in fact, the movie's tone was such that I do believe that it was best served by being black and white.
• Two terrific performance by Kristin Scott Thomas and Patricia Clarkson.
• Some very pithy and incisive dialog, particularly by Clarkson's character, but I don't believe that people actually talk that way in real life.
• It had a terrific twist as an ending.  Made the whole movie worthwhile.

I thought it was an interesting movie.  I didn't love it like the Barry Paris of the PG did, but I didn't  hate it like the critic in the New York Time did either.   Worth seventy-one minutes of your time as rental when it starts showing up on the streaming services.

Two stars from The Grandstander.

Oh, and don't confuse it with the 1968 Blake Edwards-Peter Sellers-Claudine Longet movie of the same name.  That was also about a dinner-party-gone-wrong, but the tone of that one was entirely different, as you might imagine.