The Dumb Waiter (Canada, 1987)

This sounded like an intriguing short piece at the library so I rented it. And I was right. When I picked it I just saw on the cover John Travolta and Tom Conti. What I didn’t realize that it is a Harold Pinter play directed by Robert Altman. Excellent absurd. And the first time I caught imdb.com at a “mistake”. This movie is not listed or not correctly. There is a TV movie called Basements. Apparently Altman directed two TV movies set in basements that year, the other one being “The Room”. But the VHS tape I got only had the Dumb Waiter episode. And none of the reviews mention it on the site. OK, let’s start with the basic story the two people arrive with a car to a house in the middle of nowhere through a snowy landscape. They spend the rest of the film in the house’s basement that is equipped with a large old fashioned stove, two beds, two chairs, a table, and a haphazardly functioning toilet. The basement is divided by walls and wire fence too. Tom Conti’s character is set as the “dumb” one keep asking questions and playing with a jigsaw puzzle very inadeptly. Travolta’s character is the “smarter”, younger, more aggressive and the clearly being the boss. Slowly we learn that they are hitmen, who are supposed to do away with somebody in this house. Conti’s is annoying Travolta with his constant questioning, but clearly there is some game going on between them, which we are not aware the rules of. The weirdness enters the picture when notes ordering fancy French and Greek dishes start to arrive from the supposedly deserted house’s higher floors through a “food elevator.” Interaction develops, tension heightens, submission covertly rules.I won’t tell you the end of the story, but somebody will die. What I can tell you is why this was a disturbing movie. The ambiguity. Like a Mrozek piece where you are dropped in a world with unknown rules. The question asked from the viewer who is dumb, and what does it mean to be dumb. Is the aggressive, self-assured guy dumb, because he doesn’t look below the surface and just plain evil? Or is the slow wit, soft spoken guy, who doesn’t seem to be able to adjust to changing circumstances, but still does all the action, movement, the one? What about the cleanup crew who arrives at the end? Can they clean up our mess?