Thursday, March 28, 2024

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Review // The Hundred-Foot Journey

First Published:

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The Hundred-Foot Journey is a film passed down from the gods. Literally, the film is produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey. With that type of endorsement, it’s scary to do anything other than enjoy it. And why shouldn’t you? Afterall, it’s got everything: delectable shots of food, a little bit of romance, and a nice glaze of multicultural understanding.

The film follows the Kadam family as they attempt to open a restaurant in a small French village. The Kadams are on a pilgrimage of sorts, fleeing their native India after a riot and fire left their mother dead and their restaurant in ashes. Guided by the family patriarch “Papa” and his muttered conversations with their dead mother, they find themselves (via serendipitous brake malfunction) in a charming French village which just happens to have a large, furnished restaurant up for sale. The only problem? It sits directly across the street from Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin star French restaurant helmed by the fierce and protective Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren).

What follows is a cute and predictable proximity war between the two restauranteurs. Mallory views the invading Indians and their Maison Mumbai as a threat to her oasis of French culinary perfection. Papa sniffs at the madame’s outrage, insisting that once the people of the village get a taste of their food they’ll all be converted. A war of wares ensues as each side plunders the market for the ingredients the other needs, and take quibbling complaints to the always-hungry mayor, who seems happy to be caught in the middle of things.

Meanwhile peace is quietly cultivated by the two young chefs in the opposing kitchens. Manish Dayal plays Hassan, the Kadam’s gifted young cook who need only reach into the family spice chest to revitalize an old, tired dish. On the other side, Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon) is the kind, quiet sous-chef of La Saule Pleureur who lends Hassan some books on French cooking. As he quickly masters the basics of Le Cordon Bleu, the playful sparring between the restauranteurs takes a nastier turn and it’s up to Hassan to make the peace.

Mirren is in fine-form in this one, filling Mallory with haughty indignation, but also a streak of playfulness around the edges that leaves you wanting more. She also does a mean French accent…literally, it sounds mean. She is the living embodiment of the pole-up-the-derrière French stereotype, a stark contrast to the loud, colourful presence across the street.

Lasse Hallström is well known for his love of thickly laid sentiment and it’s on full display in the film. Like Chocolat or The Shipping News, this is the type of fare that makes you feel really good about liking it, even though it hardly says anything.

Indian acting legend Om Puri plays the proud, business-minded Papa and is very enjoyable in the role. It’s incredibly entertaining to watch these two titans of the industry go head to head, and as their characters grow to understand each other a real respect begins to form between them. This is the film’s most compelling relationship and both characters feel, by the end of the film, like real, living people.

Unfortunately they live in a fantasy-land. Director Lasse Hallström is well known for his love of thickly laid sentiment and it’s on full display in the film. Like Chocolat or The Shipping News, this is the type of fare that makes you feel really good about liking it, even though it hardly says anything. The idealized French countryside – illuminated by fireworks on a near nightly basis – reflects Hallström’s cinematic worldview: that we’re just one minor misunderstanding away from pure, unadulterated happiness.

When the film is focused on the food however, it succeeds. Serving up mouth-watering images alongside pseudo-philosophical musings on cuisine (“Sea urchins taste of life”) it’s like a slow cooker dinner. Simple, but comforting. And in its way the film does highlight how food can be a connecting force between two cultures. I mean, everyone spends their afternoon scrounging for mushrooms in the forest no matter where they’re from, right? Even the love-plot between Hassan and Marguerite, which feels rather rushed, manages to work when they stick to eating.

The big issue I had with the film was that French cuisine still wins. In the first half-hour – when we’re still very much involved with the Kadams – the film seems set to skewer the stiff Michelin worshipping culture of the French restaurant. But instead it pivots, quickly firing a volley at the easy target of molecular cuisine before returning to the restaurants where nothing has really changed. Michelin stars are still the be-all and end-all, and there’s never even a suggestion that Maison Mumbai could get one.

Also lost in this comforting story is the very sad story of a female cook who, having clawed her way to the rank of sous-chef in a male-dominated industry, suddenly finds herself completely forgotten when the new hotshot Hassan arrives in the kitchen. While she succeeds in the end, it’s really only through a partnership with him. But maybe I’m looking too deeply into a film who’s message amounts to “be nice to people and eat good food.”

Though predictable, bland and a little sappy, it’s hard not to like The Hundred-Foot Journey. Lasse Hallström has gone to the well and pulled out another by-the-book cheese-ball drama, and like a real cheese-ball, we’ll happily eat it up. But like Hassan says in the film, even though they’re good, maybe old recipes are meant to be changed? Though palatable, this one could do with a little seasoning. Now where’s that spice chest?

Reviewed by Evan Arppe.

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