Director: Miguel Arteta
By Alex Watson
The theme of white privilege is tackled hard in Miguel Arteta's Beatriz at Dinner. Despite not taking full advantage of the increasing animosity on display, there is a powerful and tragic message underneath. At heart, this is a hard-hitting character study of a woman who still feels oppressed in the country she lives in. It is also a wonderful satire of Donald Trump's America and the tactlessness of the social elite.
Beatriz (Salma Hayek) is a healer and masseuse living in Los Angeles, who love the environment and animals. After a tough start, she travels out to Newport Beach for her appointment with client Cathy (Connie Britton). When car trouble prevents her departure, Cathy invites to stay for dinner much to the aggravation of her husband Grant (David Warchofsky). Once the party begins Beatriz has the displeasure of meeting boorish billionaire Doug (John Lithgow) whose views soon make her feel very unhappy.
The intentions of Beatriz at Dinner are carefully laid out early on. During the movie's opening, Beatriz finds that her beloved pet goat has been strangled to death. Even after years in America, she is still viewed as a guest and being accepted is a faraway dream. Her views on the world are that it is too be loved which almost immediately puts her at odds with her affluent hosts. Arteta does an excellent job of letting the anger simmer. Although Cathy claims to love Beatriz like family after aiding her daughter through cancer, their relationship is purely monetary. Even her attempts to bond with fellow rich guests Alex (Jay Duplass) and Shannon (Chloe Sevigny) are met with mockery. Her outcast status is made painfully obvious and her strained attempts at conversation threaten to pop the happy capitalist bubble.
When Doug arrives he firmly represents everything Beatriz despises. He's rude and arrogant, happily exploits workers, kills animals for fun, uproots people's homes to make way for his new hotel's and worst of all, he pollutes the earth. Yet despite all these shortcomings, his fellow co-workers and their wives adore him for providing the cash to live their wealthy lives. Almost immediately the pair butt heads and Mike White's script makes full use of the mutual hatred. Beatriz is the one compassionate voice in a room full comfortably blind followers. Although it begins to feel increasingly stagey, Arteta does a fine job of keeping this showdown between two world's feel brutally relevant. Doug is a man whom people will always admire no matter what wrongs are committed. The increasingly sharp dialogue lands the intended blows each time, but we wonder how much steam Beatriz really has left?
Although this is a brilliantly executed piece, Beatriz at Dinner feels way too short and the fact that Arteta refuses to give us the desire explosions leaves us feeling deflated. However, take nothing away from the shocking ending that occurs because the final image is one that will haunt you afterwards. Throughout the movie, there is a sense of injustice that carries well in Trump's America. Hard-working and kind people like Beatriz are considered a dying breed whose voice is gradually fading away. Her hosts will happily take all the wrong roads as long as the money keeps coming in. Arteta also gives a powerful social commentary at the difficulties immigrants now face and the uncertainty of what could be.
One of Hollywood's most underrated talents, Salma Hayek gives a performance of pure class as Beatriz. A very new age soul, Hayek injects a great deal of heart and feeling into this character. Believing that all humans are connected, her views are dismissed as ludicrous and her ever increasing disillusion is heartbreaking. John Lithgow makes a fine verbal duelling partner and as the repulsive Doug, he gives us the most gut-wrenching character 2017 will bring. Giving his character a sickening smugness, Lithgow forgoes any kind of charm and gives us the ugly face of Corporate America.
Beatriz at Dinner is a movie that although it leaves us wanting way more, is still a movie that deserves recognition.
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