That popular Herman Koch novel, THE DINNER, gets a second go-round via Oren Moverman

Comparisons may be odious, but they're unavoidable when two movies, based on the same popular novel (The Dinner by Herman Koch) follow each other to the screen with only a couple of years in between. TrustMovies did not read the original work, but he did see and cover the first of those films, a fine Italian version with an all-star cast, some 18 months ago (you can find his review here). That initial version is, in every way, better than the latest rendition of THE DINNER, which opens this week. That said, there are a number of good reasons to view this new film, adapted and directed by Oren Moverman (the filmmaker is shown below).

The best reason is to see actor Steve Coogan (below) -- long a terrific comedian who's very good at impersonations, too -- give the performance of his life (so far). Coogan plays one of two brothers (Richard Gere plays the other) who are usually at odds with one another, and what this actor slowly unveils is something to see. To call this performance a revelation is to short-change it entirely. Where your sympathy lies will turn upside down and sideways before the film is finished.

Essaying the roles of the brother's wives are two of our finest actresses -- Laura Linney (below, left) playing Coogan's, and Rebeccs Hall (below, right) as Gere's -- and both are as good as we've come to expect, though Ms Hall and her enormous talent are nowhere near embraced by this far too circumscribed role.

Gere himself, below, continues to give one excellent performance atop another, and he is first-class here, as well, playing the very successful brother (a politician about to begin a run for higher office). Coogan plays the "lesser" brother, always in his sibling's shadow.

The plot hinges on the two couple's children, one of which is heavily involved in a violent incident at a local ATM (below). How all this comes out, and what the quartet of characters intends to do about it makes up the meat of the movie.

As we learn more about that ATM incident, and about the people we're dealing with, sympathies waver, change, and then perhaps change again. Front and center is the narcissistic and entitled culture in which so many of us live today, whether we be the folk who can afford the five-star restaurant at which the titular dinner takes place, or simply those who are the hangers-on.

Mr. Moverman makes far too much of that restaurant, its food and the presentation (above), for we've seen this sort of thing too many times before. He also goes all out in a section of the film midway along in which Gettysburg (below) and its place in the mind and heart of the Coogan character is explored in too much length and detail. While it may make clearer what all this means to the character, it also stops the movie dead in its tracks for a time.

And yet, those four excellent lead performances, together with the engrossing tale that is spun, are good enough to carry the film, keeping us more than hooked and, of course, wondering what we might do if pushed into similar circumstances.

The original Italian version, which I highly recommend, can be purchased or rented/streamed via its U.S. distributor, Film Movement, and can also be streamed currently on Netflix. Meanwhile, you can view the new American version via the information below.

From The Orchard and running a little-too-long two hours, the film hits theaters around the country in one of the widest openings I think this little distributor has so far seen. Here in South Florida, it will play in the Miami area at Regal South Beach 18, AMC Sunset Place 24, AMC Aventura 24; in Ft. Lauderdale at the Silverspot Cinema, The Classic Gateway Theatre, AMC Broward 18 Pompano; and the West Palm Beach area at the AMC Indian River 24, The Living Room Theaters, Regal Shadowood 16, Regal Royal Palm Beach 18, and the Movies of Lake Worth and Movies of Delray, In New York City it plays the AMC Empire 25, the AMC Lowe Lincoln Square and the Landmark Sunshine; and in Los Angeles, it opens at The Landmark in West L.A. (and elsewhere), Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates and/or to find a theater in your area.

Oren Moverman's RAMPART: grueling, edifying character study of a dirty cop

It is telling, I think, that Oren Moverman's new film RAMPART (his sophomore directing effort, following his well-received The Messenger from 2009) is set in Los Angeles and tracks the ongoing break-down of a well-known, deeply disliked, greatly feared and very dirty cop. L.A. police have been notoriously racist and scandal-prone down the decades. I spent my first 20 years in Los Angeles and then came back for another ten as an adult  in the 1970s, so I can recall many of these "events" (sometimes via my older relatives talking about them), not to mention the movies that have covered them -- from Eastwood's Changeling (set during the 1920s) to Mr. Moverman's current exam-ple, which has been set nearly 20 years ago, in the early 1990s.

If, with his first film, Moverman (shown at left) offered us something relatively clear-cut and easy to digest -- the movie was a series of visits by military police to inform relatives of the loss of their loved ones in our current war efforts -- his latest film is much more daring and so is likely to be met with some hesitation and concern. What he has done in Rampart is give us as near a complete look at this cop as would seem possible, so that we observe him in a remarkably full view as he interacts with family, friends, co-workers and superiors. It is not a pretty picture, but it is a memorable one.

This, in fact, may be the (certainly one of) most thoroughly observed character study of the abuse of power centered in the hands of a policeman ever captured in a narrative film, and in the role of the protagonist, Woody Harrelson (above) is giving the kind of performance that would win every award in sight -- certainly an "Oscar" nomination for Best Actor -- were the film to be seen by a large enough audience.

That it will not be much seen can be chalked up to the fact that Moverman is rigorous in his writing and film-making, giving us this guy "whole" rather than mostly the bad parts, or the juicy parts, or the good parts. We see him as a father, a lover, a husband and a cop doing his duty -- and then doing just the opposite. Sometimes what we see is so casually shocking as to seem unreal (he didn't just do what I think he did? No...). Eventually we realize that we're dealing here with a monster of sorts, someone on the brink. That we still somehow "root" for the man, even as part of us wants to see him dead is what makes Moverman's work so important. Vestiges of this guy's humanity remain, no matter what. And that's a very big "what."

Harrelson's character (generically named "Dave Brown") is surrounded by women -- from his ex-wives (sisters played well by Cynthia Nixon and Anne Heche) to his daughters to one of his superiors (played by Sigorney Weaver) to his casual (or not so) flings like the lawyer (played by Robin Wright, above) -- so that most of the men we see are generally his victims (well, literally everyone, each in his/her way, is his victim).

Male roles are filled by actors as good (and as different) as Ice Cube (above, right), Ned Beatty, Steve Buscemi and Ben Foster. From a technical standpoint, this film seems light years beyond The Messenger. The camerawork is often thrilling, the performances have not just depth but immediacy, and the sound seems particularly noteworthy (you'll notice the sound of flamenco dancing behind one scene, of vacuuming behind another). The single weak link may be the fact that Dave Brown's behavior is so bad -- and has been for so long -- that you do wonder why the L.A.P.D has kept him on the payroll this entire time. As I recall, when cops get to be this much of an embarrassment to the force, they can no longer be allowed to run roughshod.

Mr. Moverman is an Israeli filmmaker, so I do wonder (though I do not think this was intentionally done on the director's part) if this singular character -- a representative of something hugely powerful and initially trusted as a force for good that has now corrupted itself and become a force for evil -- could also be seen as a stand-in for the state of Israel itself. (Or for that mater, the state of the USA.) This has occurred to me several times since viewing the movie, and while I don't want to attribute it to Moverman, it does strike me as a valid interpreta-tion of a film that works well within or without interpretation.

Rampart, 112 minutes, from Millennium Entertainment, opens on Wednesday, November 23, in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Sunset 5.