Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Marios Damoulianos The current score of this film (6.7) certainly does no justice to it and is indicative of what years of Hollywood-made movies does to what one expects from a movie.This film does not have a coherent story, it does not take the viewer from point A to point B and thus does not offer any real "character advancement" or real "scenario". I believe the lack of those things causes the condemnation of most viewers since to most a "film" is a "story".Well, Scola shows that it ain't necessarily so. This film could best be described as a series of "pictures" of characters and their situations. By taking us from table to table and shifting our attention from one to the next, he manages to portray the great deal of diversity of possible human positions/conditions/situations. The hall of the restaurant becomes a mosaic of people from all corners of the social structure and they have all kinds of fears, aspirations, hopes, sexual interests, political or financial anxieties, doubts or troubles.Scola uses maestrically the twists of his characters moods and their dialogue in order to occasionally insert his own social or political comments, thus giving more substance to the film. He does so without showing that he wants to do so however, and the remarks might easily be passed by the uninterested or the uninitiated totally unnoticed.The human conditions depicted in the film although presented in a light manner are no joke: The increasing distancing of a mother from her adolescent daughter, the illegitimate love between a professor and his student, the anxiety and lack of self assessment of a bank clerk, the anger of a grown-up daughter towards her supposedly un-loving father (and many more) are all deeply touching human conditions which Scola presents with a soft, warm, and at the same time lively manner.The "gist" of the film is that by constantly moving from table to table and from situation to situation he slowly takes us through the collective proceeding of the "solution" or every case -either positive, negative or neutral- and when the film ends, you feel an undeniable sense of closure, of communication, of warmth, of collectiveness, of life. Scola makes us feel like we were sitting together with his characters, on their tables, and makes us understand what is the true meaning of sitting around a table with other people. It is the explanation of the "symposium" as one of the characters explains, too, in the film and Scola explains it in the most humane, warm and caring manner.This film is nothing less than a masterpiece.

vitachiel It was to be expected that most comments on this movie were of a congratulatory nature. What's not to like about a film that focuses on just one whole evening of people having dinner in a typical Italian restaurant, with typical Italian costumers with a typical Italian predilection for good food and wine, while eavesdropping on their typical Italian conversations? OK, I'm a bit too cynical here, I know. In fact, for people interested in Italian cultural peculiarities, this film is definitively worth watching. If you want to see a good and/or entertaining movie with interesting characters, a good plot or original directing, look elsewhere. Because the personality of all the characters is set and fixed from the start and nothing is done to add a twist in psychology or state of affairs of those involved, prepare for a long and tedious sit. Nearly every second somebody is talking, but not one conversation ever gets really interesting or funny. All in all, too much of the same.

kodaky Clearly it is an adaptation of Plato's The Symposium in which the Greek philosopher discusses about Love. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symposium_%28Plato_dialogue%29 Ettore Scola was great by transposing the Greeks' feasts to an Italian restaurant, simply great! Some people may be offended by gay directions, but it is Plato's position: the greatest love possible is between the master and his pupil. That explains the sweet erotic scene of the two guys at the end of the film. "The purpose of this was so that, when a man embraced a woman, he would cast his seed and they would have children; but when male embraced male, they would at least have the satisfaction of intercourse, after which they could stop embracing, return to their jobs, and look after their other needs in life." Symposium, 191c-d The film also shows other forms of Love like: mom and son, friends, man and woman... and all of them some problem shows up. And what really matters is to love rather than being loved.

Goldmine-2 I gave 1 to this film. I can't understand how Ettore Scola,one of the greater directors of Italian cinema, made a film like this, so stupid and ridiculous! All the stories of the people involved in the movie are unsubstantial,boring and not interesting. Too long,too boring. The only things I save in this movie are Giancarlo Giannini and Vittorio Gasmann. Hope that Scola will change radically themes and style in his next film.