"Cuisine is not an old tired marriage. It is a passionate affair".
Hassan Haji (Manish Dayal) and his family have moved to France following their mother's unexpected death. The restaurateurs soon find themselves in an old building that is in dire need of a cleaning job. And, worst of all, they find themselves just across the street, 100 feet, away from one of the best restaurants in all of France, owned by the snooty and cross Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren). Controversy arises on both sides, as well as a handful of laughs, some clashing, and even a bit of romance.
First of all, the scenery is beyond beautiful. The French countryside and all its interesting contents (bicycles, fancy buildings, rivers) are shown being as breathtaking as the food. Thankfully, a lot of the interior goes back in time a little bit, rather than embracing a 21st century-style. The food, is, obviously, expertly prepared and hard not to stare at. The most memorable scene of the film for me was the scene where the omelet was made for Mallory.
The acting is also fantastic. Helen Mirren definitely has given one of the year's best performances so far. She nearly effortlessly brings a multi-faceted personality to Madame Mallory, nailing her French accent convincingly. Dayal is solid as Hassan, with him nailing the subtlety and emotion as well. Om Puri is mainly used here (very well) for comic effect, but he brings a strong level of charm and interest to the father. Charlotte Le Bon, though obviously the weakest here of the top-billers, is still interesting and original enough to bring an overall solid performance. A lot of the Indian actors do a great job as well.
The cinematography is beautiful, as well. It was a very wise decision to shoot this on regular film, rather than digital cinematography. It successfully captures the feel and charm of the film's story. Despite some predictability and stretching some plot points, Steven Knight still gives the screenplay some pizzazz. A.R. Rahman's music score, while not prevalent throughout the film, is still lovely in select spots of the film.
On the downside, the film is too long. At just over 2 hours, some of the story runs a little slow and a few plot points are stretched a bit too much. This could easily have been around 90 minutes or so based on what is trying to be shown here.
Since when is food shown in film? Not very often. The Hundred-Foot Journey came along as an oddball movie this summer, presenting a somewhat original(ish) feel and look. Can it successfully be a movie as good as the blockbusters?
I saw this with my grandmothers, who are huge fans of feel-good movies like this. And by the time we came out, they both loved it. And for the most part, I felt almost the same way. This movie is just so charming and illustrious that its so difficult to not enjoy. It is a movie that shows off exotic locations, exotic production design, and exotic food. The terrific acting only adds to the flavor.
Some sugar-coated predictability and overly long moments aside, The Hundred-Foot Journey is overall a very satisfying dish.
Score: 8.3/10
Content Problems Families Should Be Aware Of
Language: Lone uses of the s-word and "h---". "Oh my g--" is blurted out a half-dozen times. The British vulgarity "bloody" is also used a handful of times.
Adult Content: Some kissing. At the end of the movie, Hassan and Margeurite emerge from a kitchen implying they had an affair.
Violence: Someone sets fire to a restaurant, twice. Hassan burns his hands badly.
Alcohol/Drugs: Wine is served at a restaurant.
Other: The two restaurants can sometimes take the idea of competing against each other a little too far.
