Basically a film about five people talking in a room, “Dinner in Purgatory” (billed as “a philosophical comedy”) is an experiment that almost works. It’s a near miss, but unique nature of the material should ensure fest activity and some appeal in the right art venues. Ancillary action (especially on Bravo or PBS, and college use) seems assured.
Premise is that modern young woman Eve (comely Elizabeth Jasicki) dies and wakes up in purgatory, where she passes time with Christian Saint Paul (Edward Halsted), Greek philosopher Socrates (Chris Johnston), Renaissance politician Machiavelli (James Reynard) and French feminist/existentialist Simone de Beauvoir (Yvonne Bonnamy). While one doesn’t need a philosophy degree to follow the discussion, if the names don’t ring a bell, the film obviously won’t work.
No explanation is given as to why these five people are thrown together, or why Saint Paul isn’t in heaven. Instead, during champagne and then dinner, the five debate theology, history, politics and the equality of the sexes. Saint Paul comes in for a lot of grief since Socrates is a pagan, Machiavelli a blasphemer and de Beauvoir an atheist, but he manages to hold his own.
But writer/director Kerry Kiernan paints himself into a philosophical corner since the five ultimately debate the meaning of life, and, inevitably, whatever answer they come up with to this eternal mystery will strike the viewer as banal.
Audience has to be willing to play along, and it takes a good 10 or 15 minutes before the film finds its level, but then the chat becomes quite engaging. Able cast manages to create characters beyond simply mouthing positions, with Johnston’s genial Socrates and Bonnamy’s worldly de Beauvoir coming off best.
Tech credits are up to snuff, with limited funds concentrated on the set and costumes, so that claustrophobic nature of the enterprise doesn’t become overwhelming.
