If someone asked me if I could name a movie that was entirely devoid of clichés, I would without a moment's hesitation answer, "My Dinner With André". It's a wonderfully odd movie; there is simply nothing else like it. It should be unwatchable, and yet you can return to it time and time again, and feel always enchanted.
Wally and André meet, sit down, talk for almost two hours. As in all conversations, the tide of energy flows back and forth, but mostly it is André doing the talking, and Wally the listening. Wally is a man who likes to wrap himself in cozy domesticity and likes his electric blanket. He is round, earnest, squinting. His friend Andre is tall, thin, angular. He has returned from far-off lands with strange tales, which he relates with twinkling eagerness.
What they actually say is not really the point. You could read, word for word, all about André's theories and Wally's doubts here, but I don't think it's necessary as this is not a logical process. It is a conversation, in which the real subject is the tone, the mood, the energy. Here are two friends who have each found a way to live successfully. Each is urging the other to wake up and smell the coffee. The difference is that, in Wally's case, it's real coffee.
It's a beautiful 111-minute-long commentary on life. Listen and learn!
