THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY
The beauty of the French countryside (and of Helen Mirren) are painted on as thick as syrup in this succulent cross between The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Chocolat, which sees an Indian family taking asylum in England, and then France, after their homeland restaurant is firebombed and their mother killed. Director Lasse Hallström, who also directed Chocolat, seeks to give us more of the same: quality cast, sumptuous visuals and newcomers battling resentful neighbours. Armed with a French accent that could punch through a passport queue, Mirren is on prime frosty form as Madame Mallory, the owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant situated across the road from a crumbling pile, which Papa Kadam (the perennially charming Om Puri) decides to renovate into a new Indian family restaurant, against his family’s advice.
His long-suffering children Mansur (Amit Shah), Mahira (Farzana Dua Elahe) and aspiring chef Hassan (Manish Dayal) can’t see a future opposite Madame’s restaurant, and are further mortified by their father’s refusal to behave in a European manner. After some less than neighbourly behaviour from Madame, it’s battle at dawn, with further obstacles from racist village residents, and from Papa’s own family. Hassan is fascinated by French cuisine, and he is torn between Madame’s sous chef Marguerite and his loyalty to the family business, as he slowly falls in love with her.
Newcomer Charlotte Le Bon is a revelation as Marguerite, a talented chef of almost saintly kindness who welcomes the family, and lends Hassan books on French cuisine to nurture his passion. The film gains an extra star whenever she’s on screen, but it also shows the lack of chemistry between Le Bon and Manish Dayal’s Hassan, whose relationship doesn’t so much blossom as get towards the end and remember it should be there.
Part of the problem is the script, which also doesn’t appear to have gone anywhere near a chef. The food lacks inspiration, and credulity is stretched to a millefeuille thinness as Hassan’s skill with Indian spices drives France’s critics to raptures. There is only so much coriander one can throw at a dish to make it superb, and chefs already know about spices. Give us something more – or at least, more lingering food close-ups, which are disappointingly thin on the ground.
Hassan, duly recruited to Madame’s restaurant while Marguerite seethes in a corner, is later poached by a Parisian restaurant the screenwriter appears to have found by running ‘cosy French restaurant’ through an antithesis dictionary – a metallic, cold place that’s more like a laboratory.
By the time Hassan is having a mini breakdown in front of a bottle of wine and a Tupperware of homecooked Indian food, you’re half-exasperated and half-cheering the inevitable prospect of a return to cosy countryside France. Le Bon, Mirren and Puri are exquisite ingredients, but they can’t save this overdone dish.
In cinemas now.