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Rating: Etimologically, the word "idiot" describes someone who spends their private life away from public offices.
Throwing a boomerang before going to the office, building models with matches and glue are not just pastimes but a way to save oneself from the ugliness of life or simply from stress. They are the extracurricular activities that help an individual regain their mental balance. In the same way, self-proclaimed smart people spend their time looking for foolish individuals to feel a little less foolish themselves. But the mechanism is the same. Only doing it in a group seemingly protects them from more widely distributed guilt. This is evident from the opening scenes of the film.
Who is really the fool in this story? In the film, the viewer follows the story of the two protagonists, Thierry Lhermitte (the handsome one, the publisher with the luxurious apartment) always on the hunt for some fool for themed dinners and Jacques Villeret (chubby, bald, clumsy, and good-natured) the alleged idiot, the guest. What is an idiot? As in Dostoevsky's novel, both protagonists, with their different stories, discover themselves and their limits at the moment of greatest suffering. The author describes a reality where the continuous corruption of the human soul becomes contagious, confronting us with a situation of impotence and frustration (Lhermitte doesn't even realize he is losing his wife until he receives a phone call from her saying "I will not return," after which he desperately tries to track down his beloved with countless phone calls amid back pain and the help-or-not-help of the fool). The idiot ends up reflecting on their disappointment, maturing at the moment when defeat (loss of the beloved for both protagonists) leads us unmistakably to a situation of extreme insecurity (loneliness and retreat to alternative activities, waiting for unpredictable outcomes).
In "The Idiot," Dostoevsky narrates a world that knows only material values (protagonist Lhermitte's house is filled with valuable "trinkets" that he quickly hides as soon as a zealous tax collector appears at the door). The entire novel of the Russian author revolves around the protagonist's figure, Prince Myshkin, a pure spirit incapable of adjusting to the cynicism and pettiness that dominate around him: with his disarming kindness, his absolute innocence, he longs for total harmony (and in the film, Villeret is seen in his kindness, generous naivety and the search for an alternative to suffering through the pastime of matchstick models, which according to him saved him from the end). It will not be easy for the viewer to "take sides," confused by the paradoxes that will overturn initial convictions.
A French film from 1998 highly successful in terms of comedy with the guise of a comedy. As ingredients, besides the drama of losing a loved one, there is a story of rediscovered friendship, a small battle with one's fears, and a grotesque and tenderly paradoxical thread.
This dinner, mentioned in the title and much anticipated, never actually happens. At the start, the viewer is led to believe that despite the interruptions, sooner or later, the events will take place at the designated location, and they prepare for hearty laughs. However, it is the interruptions, the unexpected variations, that become the driving force and the center of attention. A sort of tested suspense, carried out by the talented director Francis Veber, entertains because it surprises, and the flavor of the unexpected does not always have a bitter taste. And some viewers might end up feeling a little foolish themselves.
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