THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
Cast: Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon, Amit Shah, Faranza Dua Elane, Dillon Mitra, Aria Pandya, Michael Blanc, Clement Sibony, Juhi Chawla
Rating: B
Delicious, decadent, and delightful, food is one of the life’s most simple and treasured pleasures.
Sugar and spice mixed just right will make for a tasty concoction meant to make mouths water, delight the eyes, and tantalize the taste buds. But, mix recipe the wrong way and the end result could be an upset stomach. Will The Hundred-Foot Journey be filled with all the fixings for an appetizing film or just enough over cooking for a bad case of heart burn?
The Kadam family becomes nomads across Europe after tragically losing their restaurant in a fire during rioting in Mumbai. The beloved Papa (Omi Puri) leads the family to the small town in the south of France where he stumbles upon an abandoned restaurant. The ambitious and determined elder tells his children that this will now be their new home and they will open a new restaurant called Maison Mumbai. Papa, along with his talented son Hassan (Manish Dayal), is convinced that cuisine from India that the French patrons have never tasted will make the Masion Mumbai a great success.
What Papa Kadam did not bargain for was the fierce competition from Madam Mallory’s (Helen Mirren) restaurant that just happens to be a hundred feet across the road. La Saule Pleureur,
Madam Mallory’s pride and joy, is a Michelin star restaurant famous for its Foi Gras, Pigeon with Truffles, and many other culinary delights. The single-minded, stubborn, sophisticated restaurateur is outraged by the loud Bhangra music, the smell of curry, and the obnoxious colors glaring at her from across the street. Determined to get the new comers from the east out of her village and away from her beloved eatery, Madam Mallory goes on a quest to sabotage the Maison Mumbai. What she does not bargain for is that the stubborn Papa Kadam will be a formable opponent. So starts the war between the two widowers to outsmart each other in the battle of restaurant survival.
Meanwhile Hassan is busy flirting Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), a sous chef at La Saule Pleureur.
Marguerite starts sharing cooking secrets with Hassan who it turns out is an extremely talented cook. Soaking up everything he is learning from his sous chef love, Hassan sets out to impress Madam Mallory with his creativity and skill in the kitchen. When Madam Mallory realizes the talent Hassan possess she recruits him to become a chef in her kitchen. Her hope is that with a creative genius at work in her restaurant, La Saule Pleureur will obtain not one but two more Michelin stars, making her restaurant one of the best in the French countryside.
Providing the audience with romance, comedy, and family drama, The Hundred-Foot Journey, moves along nicely until the last third of the film. The movie takes a left turn when Hassan becomes a famous chef and moves to Paris. The filmmakers try to produce inner conflict in Hassan as he strays away from his roots under the bright Paris lights but the only thing that happens here is that the character gets lost and the film comes to a grind like a blender stuck on one setting.
What holds this movie together is the interaction between the talented Helen Mirren and Indian screen legend Omi Puri. Mirren is brilliant as the staunch snobbish French aristocrat that ultimately reveals that she is a loving, caring, and compassionate woman. Omi Puri is great as the tenacious and driven head of the household determined to overcome all obstacles and save his family. The banter back and forth between Mirren and Puri is one of the most enjoyable things about this movie.
Newcomer Charlotte Le Bon is a nice addition as an ambitious young chef trying to get ahead of her competition but her part is a bit under written. The same goes for Manish Dayal’s portrayal of Hassan. The writers of the film don’t give him enough to do so he never really shines on the screen and once his character moves to Paris the role turns very bland and boring.
The Hundred-Foot Journey is a visual feast for the eyes. There are beautiful shots of the French countryside as the storyline moves from season to season. The slow motion lingering shots of food being prepared are enough to make anyone salivate. Camera angles filled with food and scenery practically steal the show from the actors.
If director Lasse Hallstrom had not taken a detour in the last third of the movie, then The Hundred-
Foot Journey could have been the sister act to his 2000 masterpiece Chocolat. We are waiting to be left with something scrumptious but in the end find only crumbs. Despite the fact that desert is missing, this film does have many enjoyable moments that will at least leave you with a smile and that alone is worth a few stars.
