StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

calvinnme This is a very well done French-Canadian film about eight friends meeting for a dinner party out in the country. Three middle-aged men and a one young man are already at the manor where the dinner will take place, preparing the meal and discussing their sex lives. The remaining party guests, three middle-aged women and one young woman, are spending the day at the gym, exercising and discussing their sex lives.Eventually they meet up at the country manor for dinner, and the conversation continues. While this may sound like not much happens, the film is never boring, and the direction by Denys Arcand keeps the viewer visually interested. I'm also keeping the character descriptions purposely vague, as their relationships to one another are revealed slowly as the film progresses. The dialogue is frank, funny and sharp, and all eight characters are fully-drawn human beings. I especially like the notion that these eight characters who seem to speak non-stop and at times overshare in the extreme, can't seem to honestly communicate when it matters most in their lives.The title refers to a historical adage that when members of a given society begin to think about their own individual happiness above every other concern, that society is doomed. The characters' romantic navel-gazing and at times destructive pursuit of happiness seems to signal our own societal sunset. But don't let that heavy thought steer you away from the film, as it's brilliantly acted and well worth a look.The sequel, "The Barbarian Invasions", made 17 years later, is also very worthwhile.

runamokprods Sort of a Gallic 'Big Chill', but smarter, if less emotional. There really isn't a plot. For the first half of the film four upscale, yuppie male friends (one gay) prepare a meal and talk about sex, while their female counterparts do the same at a gym. The 2nd half is the two groups sharing dinner, where the talk is more muted, but the personal stakes much higher. Probably overrated when it first came out, now treated too harshly. The acting is strong throughout, and the satiric reality that all of the characters believe themselves self-knowing, but are really all living in denial and delusion is a little obvious, but interesting in it's execution.

Michael Neumann This French Canadian talkfest will be a feast for intellectuals, but a test of endurance for anyone else, showing a group of University professors and their spouses discussing, explicitly and at great length, their relationships and sex lives, at first separately and later together over dinner. The men brag, the women ridicule, and there isn't a sympathetic character in the bunch. It's certainly a handsome film, but obviously not for all tastes; except for a single apt metaphor equating men with insects and women with reptiles the whole charade is too cold and uninvolving. All the highbrow philosophical cud chewing can't disguise the fact that writer director Denys Arcand is simply peddling the same, standard ammunition that has always fueled the battle between the sexes.

rikyssese A lot of people in the cinema enjoyed this film, but it only made me feel misanthropic. If smug "intellectuals" bantering about their irritating sex lives, sounds ok to you, watch it. I felt bored, but glad I did know people like that. The premise of the film was that, as with all societies or great civilizations, they are eventually doomed to fail. According to the female historian character, who bores us with this fact, America is showing signs of it's decline (Admittedly she goes into greater detail than me). The next part of the film is concerned with the vacuous, fatuous and asinine behaviour of her friends and colleagues, and the various miseries caused by their libidinous behaviour, with a vague attempt at humor. A lot of people liked this movie where I watched it. I could not relate to it.