Powerful

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

It's always interesting to see what a good writer can do when they let their characters take the gloves off. In this case, an obscure Peruvian wine removes the gauntlets and loosens the tongues of two couples on Halloween night. What comes out is not drunken ravings, but rather deep truths and petty insecurities - the things we go to great pains to obscure from even those closest to us. That one character does not imbibe in the truth serum while the other three do adds to the complexity of the premise and the potential for humor. Unformulaic and refreshingly honest, the film is riotously funny and brilliantly acted -well worth searching out!

An interesting exercise - saw this via Netflix at the recommendation of a friend. Wasn't disappointed, but mildly frustrated - a LOT of topics, some thoughtfully explored, a few touched upon & quickly dropped, with some outstanding work by skilled actors, and mostly tight, efficient direction. The suburban setting was letter perfect for the premise: two couples meet before a Halloween party, drink some "magic" blue wine, and get down to exploring truths. Their common ground initially is their focus on their children, whom we never see; misperceptions & frustrated hopes for their kids are uncovered and confronted. We also get believable, if somewhat rushed, glances at 9/11, atheism, suburban hypocrisy, career and money anxieties, etc - modern life.All four actors were excellent. Preston & White were the more vividly written couple; Preston had several chances to do her patented 'zany' characterization (see "The Good Wife"), and White was quite believable as an ambitious & somewhat oblivious MD. Interestingly, in a discussion of 9/11, bias d/t his ethnicity was only glancingly touched upon, an opportunity for deeper exploration unexplored. Rather, real and imagined sexual peccadilloes of both are mined.Raffo & Hutchison are less exotic, but the eventual history of their relationship is more heartfelt; they also seem to have a visible sexual chemistry not evident in the other couple. Raffo is touching in a somewhat underwritten role as a restless and disappointed mate to a man who, vaguely, is no longer as ... "exciting" as when they were married. Hutchison quite convincingly portrays a charming, somewhat goofy suburban dad who reveals unexpected depths; his reaction when he and Raffo discuss losing a child is immensely moving, and that discussion give the film a center it needs. Both he and Raffo deserve wider exposure.Less successful were the extraneous 'hooks' evidently meant to power the screenplay. The blue wine of truth was unnecessary - high-proof vodka would have done as well; 'roofies' (rohypnol) as an 'antidote' was just silly. Being an atheist or agnostic is not really so dumbfounding, right? The Halloween costumes were interesting, but extraneous; the trope of "two couples settling in for an evening of drinking and verbal jousting" is tried & true for a reason - it works, & doesn't need a lot of explication. Overall, an 8 - because I stayed interested until the end, and the acting was excellent.

We saw this movie today as part of the monthly Camera Cinema Club program in San Jose. It's an independent film, based on a play written by David MacGregor. There are four characters: two married couples living next door to each other in suburbia. (The movie was filmed in Lincoln, Nebraska.) On Halloween, the couples get together and the hostess brings out a mysterious blue Peruvian wine made from the boiled skin of the blue dart tree frog--supposedly the same frog used to create poison darts. Drink this and you must tell the truth. Three of the four characters drink and what follows is more than an hour of some of the rawest truth you might hope to hear among four close neighbors.It's not like this field hasn't been plowed before. Yasmina Reza's "God of Carnage" comes to mind as a recent entry in this two-couples-speak-truth trope but you can go all the way back to "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and probably further back if you like. There's plenty of material to mine and "Vino Veritas" mines the topic deeply and well.This film is a comedy drama. It touches on so many land-mine subjects (life, death, truth in marriage, trials of parenthood, loss of a child, marital fidelity, sexual communication and power in marriage, loss of one's carefree youth, loss of ardor, terrorism, faith in God, and on, and on) that I simply lost count and waited for the next tick of the script. It's a high-velocity, zig-zag ramble through many, many topics and there's no way you're going to see when the next turn will occur or where it will take you. All that's required is the asking of a question to zig or zag to the next deep truth.All four actors do a spectacular job in this 4-person film. It's so suburban in appearance that most viewers will be easily able to identify with the characters, which digs the topical hooks in even deeper. This is a thinking person's film with a heart. Comedy, drama, pathos. A rare delivery in today's film choices.

Just saw this at a private viewing. Alternately emotionally intense and hilarious! You laugh and gasp as you watch it, and leave with a bug in your head that keeps you thinking - what is really important in life? Totally new take on the "suburban middle class"; it peels off the artificial veneer of suburban life. Everyone who sees this should leave thinking differently about their public lives and relationships versus their inner selves, and wonder how they veered so far off course! Viewers should be alerted that this movie touches upon almost every controversial issue our society currently faces and so contains adult material, language, and references to religion that may not be acceptable to all - but that's all the more reason to see it!