‘Four to Dinner’ review: Another dull, overly talkative romance film with nothing to offer

Netflix has acquired the rights to an Italian film entitled Four to Dinner. It discusses the possibilities of having a soulmate. The film goes through the relationships of multiple couples and their struggles in finding common ground, love and acceptance in one another. It may not go their way at times, but that’s usually how relationships work.

The film tries to take a more realistic approach to dating and relationships. That might be a good idea on the surface, but it seems more meandering than anything.

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A dull take on relationships: ‘Four to Dinner’ talks too much

The cast of 'Four to Dinner' (Image via Netflix)

This movie could have been a lesson on how to handle relationships. Instead, it’s just a long diatribe of boring exposition that gets the viewer nowhere. Listening to the dialogue, the viewer can deduce that the characters are too insecure and preoccupied with their own self-conscious microcosms of life to be bothered by anything else.

The script sounds like what other couples want to say to each other but never get around to saying because they don’t want to mess anything up. The sad part is that talking is great when creating dialog but the film fails to recognize a key element that makes the talking and dialog more meaningful: Silence.

It’s the break in the fray that adds emphasis to the words in the story when a character does not need to say anything. It’s something that Four to Dinner lacks.

Dubbed voice actors phone in their performance

'Four to Dinner' poster (Image via Netflix)

The dubbed voice actors in the film are annoying. It’s already difficult to watch a film when the characters’ mouths don't match with what is being said. Understandably, it is a foreign film, but nevertheless.

The voice actors don’t even sound convincing enough for the audience to think that they’re actually pulling off a decent vocal performance. Every sentence uttered is unbearably lifeless and an ordeal to endure.

It adds nothing new

Like so many other romantic comedies and movies that try too hard, Four to Dinner is no exception. Like a few other Netflix content, it does not prove to reinvent the wheel in its perspective genre.

It’s disheartening knowing that all of this talent and work that went into making this film was ultimately wasted on poor execution and dull storytelling.