Melvin Goes to Dinner

Plot

Melvin is a onetime medical student who has dropped out of medical training and now works (after a fashion) in a planning office of an unnamed city; the office supervisor is his big sister, so she "mothers" him instead of making him perform well. Melvin accidentally makes telephone contact with an old friend, and they decide to meet that evening for dinner. The friend decides to arrive early at the restaurant for drinks with a lady friend. By the time the dinner appointment arrives, there are 4 people involved, all of them connected in some way to at least one of the other parties. The evening passes in a leisurely dinner with much conversation, sometimes intimate. The connections between the parties are revealed throughout the evening. The movie includes several flashbacks, which at the start are not explained but which become understandable by the end.

Cast

Production

Michael Penn wrote the music for the film. The film won the Audience Award at the 2003 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, and the Best Picture and Best Ensemble Awards at the Phoenix Film Festival.

The movie uses many actors who are mainliners in other television productions, such as Odenkirk's former Mr. Show co-star David Cross as a self-help seminar leader. However, the main characters are all played by the stage actors who performed in the Los Angeles stage production on which the screenplay is based.