Fine dining collides head on with Indian cuisine in The Hundred Foot Journey as a family leaves India for France, where they open a restaurant directly across the road from a Michelin-starred eatery. And you can guess the distance between the two establishments.
With a bunch of heavy hitters involved here from Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey on producer duties to Helen Mirren as Madama Mallory, one would expect a delectable dish of movie dining. Instead, we’re treated to something that is the gastronomic equivalent of food poisoning. Things start off promising enough with the Kadam family turning up in France and opening their restaurant and quickly they start making inroads in the local community. But once that’s on the stove, multiple plot lines including two predictable love stories, minor espionage, career ambitions and god knows what else, all force The Hundred Foot Journey to boil over and prove that director Lasse Hallstrom has bitten off more than he can chew. There is no time to develop these multiple plots and they feel rushed and towards the end, many of them feel like an afterthought and are quickly forgotten, once they are forcibly hurried to some form of conclusion.
While the movie is based on a best selling novel, there is far too much going on here for it be to digestible (we really didn’t mean that food pun). Time and time again it falls over itself as it poorly attempts to intersect the multiple plots, with more flow to be found in a blocked sink. If the movie adaptation was pared back somewhat, then we’d have a rather light and enjoyable meal. Instead, we’re force fed black bags of junk.
However it’s not all bad. Helen Mirren, while sadly underused, is a joy to behold on screen as her pretentious and cold exterior is fascinating to watch. Her gradual cracking and softening is heartwarming, granted a tad predictable, however, it is rather subtly don. The other main cast, Om Puri (Papa) and Manish Dayal (Hassan) are used to great extent, in particular Om Puri, whose elegance and composure is warming and indulging. The same can be said for Manish Dayal, and while he goes from cook to super star chef, his demeanour never really changes that much and he puts in a decent performance. The innocence he projects, whilst never gaining a huge superstar ego makes him incredibly likeable.The supporting cast are adequate, granted Charlotte Le Bon’s French accent dips into complete American at times, which I’m still trying to fathom out why.
Visually, The Hundred Foot Journey is beautiful (to an extent), with undertones of Wes Anderson style compositions where shot after shot is strangely hypnotic, and natural light is used to deliver some stunning landscapes. For a movie that has food at it’s core, you’d expect to be starved once the credits roll. Alas, this is no Chef. While Jon Favreau’s masterpiece had audiences salivating at every frame, this is a different beast altogether. Contrary to the wonderful exterior photography, the on screen food is presented as bland, boring and looks about as tasty as wet cardboard.
On few occasions the movie delivers a few hilarious lines of dialogue, but quickly reverts back to the more serious and pretentious tones of Madame Mallory’s restaurant. If The Hundred Foot Journey left its guard down on occasion and provided a bit more humour, it’s tedious 2 hour running time might be a bit more endurable.
Withstanding good performances, ultimately the movie is over cooked and over done. This is one dish that should have never made it out of the kitchen. Send it back!
