The movie is set almost entirely in the living room of an apartment with a spectacular view of Paris, and involves dupes, mistaken identities, pratfalls and misdirection. Once a month, wealthy and handsome book publisher Pierre Brochant (French heart throb Thierry Lhermitte) organises a dinner party with several of his friends, in which their sole purpose is to compete for the honour of who can invite the best "idiot." Desperate to find his latest dupe, Pierre is tipped off about a man named François Pignon (Jacques Villeret), a tax inspector who rambles on and on about a collection of monuments he made entirely out of matchsticks. Inviting him to his home under the guise of wanting to publish a book about his collection, Brochant seriously injures his back just prior to Pignon's arrival. Thus it is that they never quite make their dinner - or do they? Judge for yourself. With great hilarity, the intended victim and his victimizer reverse roles. In short shrift, Pignon manages to aggravate Brochant's back injury, permanently alienate the man's wife Christine (Alexandra Vandernoot) and his mistress Marlène Sasseur (Catherine Frot), and set in motion an audit by the very angry tax inspector Juste Leblanc (Francis Huster). This is a light and perfectly digestible fare, in the genre of the classic French farce. Bon appétit!
Review of Le Dîner de Cons
