BEATRIZ AT DINNER
US, 2017, 82 minutes, Colour.
Salma Hayak, John Lithgow, Connie Britton, Jay Duplass, Amy Landecker, Chloe Sevigny, David Warshofsky, John Early.
Directed by Miguel Arteta.
Beatriz at Dinner is an enigma of the film. It is definitely not an entertainment for those who like QED or its equivalent as they walk out of the cinema.
It opens with a rowing boat on a river, a woman in the boat. She passes a white goat on the bank. And then Beatriz wakes up, a black goat in a cage in her room and a pet dog barking at it. It looks as though this film is going to be a combination of magical realism and practical realism. And it is.
Salma Hayak is Beatriz, who lives alone, has a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe as well is a Buddha statue in front of which she contemplates in her house. She goes to work in a Cancer Centre, relating wonderfully to those there for treatment, an expert in all kinds of alternate medicines. Clearly, Beatriz belongs to a New Age World, especially as the setting is California.
Beatriz also does house calls and is welcomed by Kathy (Connie Britton), less so by her husband Grant (David Warshofsky). She has cared for their daughter, a teenager with cancer. Beatriz has trouble with her car and it won’t start as she goes to leave. Her friend cannot get to the house, a mansion, for a couple of hours.
Kathy, always grateful, invite Beatriz to stay for dinner. She has on a kind of uniform but is helped out from Kathy’s wardrobe. Then the guests begin to arrive, two couples, involved in the business world, in property development in the US and in Mexico, the women more interested in Beatriz who seems to be just hanging about and is mistaken for the maid by Doug (John Lithgow).
We get some background of the deals and the development – which leads into Beatriz’s conversations at dinner. She is not exactly shy and retiring. She certainly offers opinions – feeling that she has known Doug before, something confirmed when, after the meal, she demonstrates her massage skills and feels a link with him.
These are the kinds of screenplay clues that we are meant to be alert to, this one being more obvious than others.
Beatriz is invited to give something of her background, with Kathy supplying, sympathetically, a lot of the detail. She is from Mexico, her parents dead, her being brought up by relatives, having to leave when developers came into the town, took over the land, built a resort which did not flourish, leaving the residents impoverished or having to leave.
Doug is one of those superficially genial businessman, who can turn on the charm, but is ruthless in his dealings, supported by his wife who is more friendly to Beatriz than Doug is. Jay Duplass and Chloe Sevigny are the other couple, she again giving more attention to Beatriz than her husband.
So, the dinner could be seen as a verbal allegory of contemporary US, the exploiters, the exploited, the wealthy preoccupied with wealth, the immigrants and their place in that society. Amongst Doug’s opinions are questions of whether Beatriz was an illegal immigrant or not – though he praises her for getting a job and being employed. He also makes remarks about the environment, rather apocalyptic with some of his utterances, wondering whether the environment or even human beings will be around for much longer – an eat, drink and be merry approach to moneymaking and life.
The car is fixed and Beatrice suddenly rushes from the car – and a sequence that will surprise, even alarm. Then another emotional jolt, and then something quite unexpected…
And then, the film continues, Beatriz rowing on the river. No QED, leaving the audience to ponder on what they have seen and heard and how it relates to contemporary American life.
1. The title, the focus on Beatriz? The preparation for the dinner, the actual dinner? Hosts, guests? The repercussions of the dinner?
2. The California settings, the river the opening, Newport Beach, Beatriz’s apartment, the Cancer Centre, the roads, the mansion, the cliffs and the sea? The musical score?
3. Real/fantasy? The effect on the audience? Moments of what if…?
4. The New Age atmosphere, mysticism, contemplation, alternate therapies?
5. Beatriz, on the river, the white goat on the bank? Her waking, the apartment, the black goat in the cage, the dogs and their barking? Her story about the death of the goat? The neighbour killing the goat? The shrine in her house, prayer and incense?
6. Her uniform, her work, with the cancer patients, conversation, care?
7. Her driving, the car? Arriving at the mansion, the gates? Being allowed in? Kathy and the massage? The conversation, the story of Kathy’s daughter, her illness, Beatriz and her care? Leaving, the car not going, staying?
8. Her clothes, the uniform, Kathy welcoming her, the wardrobe? Grant tolerating her? The visits to the kitchen, observations, the cooking? The arrival of the guests? The two husbands and wives? Conversation, drinks, Beatriz and the white wine, listening to the conversation? Doug thinking she was the maid?
9. The meal, Kathy praising Beatriz, all that she had done for their daughter? The conversations? Doug and his interrogation about her Mexican background? Kathy telling the story? The question of whether she was an illegal migrant? Congratulations that she was occupied and had a job? The adjournment for dessert?
10. The chatter, Beatriz and her being very serious, the history of her town, Mexico, the American developers, promises, taking the land, the resort, the failure, the local inhabitants, losing the land and homes, not having jobs?
11. Beatriz saying she knew Doug? Massaging his neck and feeling the link? The talk about reincarnation and finishing unfinished business?
12. The background of business, deals, laws, getting round the laws, registration of documents? The social level of the couples and the business backgrounds? The emphasis on making money?
13. Beatriz, her attitude towards Doug? Leaving, the man fixing the car, leaving the car, the knife, stabbing Doug, his dying? Then seeing that this was an imaginary situation?
14. The couples, lighting the lanterns, sending them up into the sky?
15. Beatriz, driving away, stopping at the clifftop, wading into the sea, the waves and her disappearance? Then the boat in the river?
16. Life, death? Beatriz in the New Age and healing? Doug, moneymaking, and not believing in earth having a future?
17. Audiences enjoying allegories and symbolism?
