serving up cliches

There is nothing more disappointing than a good story that falls short of its full potential.

Especially a tale layered in facets and nuance that has been willfully destroyed by misguided Hollywood misconceptions.

wonder |wander |world had looked forward to watching this and is so vastly disappointed with the manipulated Hollywoodized version in the story presented of Beatriz at Dinner.

Unfortunately, little of the diverseness and promise in this preview showed up in the full film.

Here are some movie synopsis samples:

A holistic medicine practitioner attends a wealthy client's dinner party after her car breaks down. ~ IMDB

Beatriz (Salma Hayek), an immigrant from a poor town in Mexico, has drawn on her innate kindness to build a career as a health practitioner in Los Angeles. Doug Strutt (John Lithgow) is a cutthroat, self-satisfied billionaire. When these two opposites meet at a dinner party, their worlds collide and neither will ever be the same. ~ Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

At an elegant dinner party in a swanky hilltop home, conversation between a soft-spoken holistic healer and a hard-nosed businessman explodes into a bitter clash of cultures in Beatriz at Dinner. ~ Roadside Attractions

Not even the superb performance of both Salma Hayek and John Lithgow as well matched adversaries could save this production from the heavy handed cliches that ruined potential magical and poignantly insightful moments with foolish sweeping generalities over American social woes that tell us more about the warped misconception Hollywood projects about these topics instead of offering the audience more nuanced and satisfying substance.

This turned out to be so much huff and fluff. With the sole object being to showcase such losers. Why make every single person look so bad and unredeemable? What for?

Why would a highly professional holistic healer drink so much at a dinner she was already so uncomfortable to attend? Her behavior was disproportionately abominable and erratic. The fact that Salma Hayek delivered the role with such believability makes this manipulation much worse.

Did John Lithgow’s depiction of an entitled business tycoon have to be so one dimensional and lacking in substance? Even Lithgow’s beautiful delivery as an actor could not save this cliche.

Worst of all [SPOILER ALERT!] to have the character of this supposedly sensitive healer snuff out her own life, succumbing to the weight of her loss and emotions, makes for such a pathetic ending.
Especially in the wake of that ridiculous “killing the enemy” fantasy set up before she traipses out of the mansion and rides out into the night in that over sized tow truck. It was such a shallow and ignorant presentation and characterization.

What a let down the full feature was compared to the excitement generated by the trailer. Hollywood or not we the public viewing audience expected better from these skilled storytellers. The good acting made the wrongness of the premise appear much worse.