Beatriz (Salma Hayek) is an immigrant from a village in Mexico, that has since been destroyed, now living in Los Angeles working as an alternative medicinal healer and massage therapist. While stranded at her client Cathy’s (Connie Britton) home, Beatriz encounters a brash, selfish, greedy billionaire named Doug Strutt (John Lithgow) and is forced to face someone who values little else outside of his own personal satisfaction.
Beatriz at Dinner tries to examine modern society and its relationship with evil. Each dinner guest serves as a sort of archetype of people in society, most of which do nothing in the face of the evil among us. The young, ambitious social climbers eager to get ahead in Shannon and Alex (Chloe Sevigny and Jay Duplass); the person more interested in keeping their connections and networks intact and maintaining their status than taking a stand in Grant (David Warshofsky), and the surface level liberal that speaks of supporting diversity but is more committed to maintaining superficial civility and “order” in Cathy.
As the film goes on, Beatriz becomes more and more insistent that she knows Doug. At first, she believes he may have owned the hotels that destroyed her town. But in the end, she says “That man killed my goat” or the quote “All tears flow from the same source.” In Doug, Beatriz saw the same selfishness and disregard for life and other living things as in the angry neighbor that killed her goat. Both Doug and the neighbor point to a larger culture which has caused her strife. In that way, she “knew” Doug.
Beatriz at Dinner’s thematic premise examining our modern relationship with evil in our world is a worthy one but ultimately fails to really connect in this film. It leans more toward obviousness and artsy preachiness than a film with something poignant to say. Salma Hayek does well in a role that is different from her normal fare but the film itself does little meet her efforts.
Image: Roadside Attractions
