Comedies which rely on persons of limited intelligence to generate laughs range from the sublime (the work of Laurel and Hardy) to the questionable (Dumb and Dumber). In the case of Francis Veber's The Dinner Game, the laughs are on the allegedly intelligent and cultured Pierre Brochant (Thierry Lhermitte), and not at the expense of the dimwitted Francois Pignon (Jacques Villeret). Francois is the innocent victim of an elaborate joke Pierre and his friends play, but when Pierre finds himself in need of a true friend, the ever-trusting Francois is his man. In Veber's skilled hands, this is a comedy with neither malice nor mush, just a witty examination of bourgeois pretensions. One shudders to think how an American remake with, say, Adam Sandler, is likely to contain big helpings of both elements.