The Hundred-Foot Journey

Starring: Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon, Amit Shah, Farzana Dua Elahe
Directed by: Lasse Hallstrom
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy, Drama
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An Indian man (Manish Dayal) with dreams of being a chef helps his family open an Indian restaurant, much to the chagrin of a rival (Helen Mirren).

Review:

Tim: There's been a number of food and restaurant related movies in recent years. While several of them have been fairly solid, the number of truly great cooking movies is pretty slim. The Hundred-Foot Journey is the latest contestant. While it's an enjoyable, well-made movie, it still misses out on that elusive greatness. Don't be turned off, though- I'd certainly recommend this movie.

The heart of the film is the culture clash between an Indian family who emigrates to France. They obviously have very different cultures, ideals, and approaches to food. The movie plays up these differences while also doing a good job of conveying the similarities between people of all cultures. In the early stages of the movie, the fish-out-of-water scenes with the Indian family account for some laughs and reinforce the idea that they have many challenges are the perceived "outsiders". It's an important point to establish and threads through the rest of the movie. Much of the following scenes are about Hassan and his journey into the culinary world. First, he has to learn the art of French cooking, including a wide variety of unfamiliar foods, spices, and tastes. Then, he has to gain confidence in his own cooking and background to be able to blend both cultures together. It's a very predictable journey, but one worth taking.

The cast was fairly good. I really liked Manish Dayal as Hassan. Dayal has charm and conveys intelligence. I really liked him in this role and hope to see a lot more of him in the future. I wasn't as impressed with Helen Mirren. She's a very good actress, but her performance just felt a little on-the-nose. I'm sure her presence was important to the studios to have a "big name" attached to the film. I actually think it would have been better with a far less famous person in that role. It bothered me a little how front-and-center Mirren was in the marketing, when she's certainly not the lead. Charlotte Le Bon gave a good performance as well and showed sparks of potential. Om Puri added in a very strong supporting performance. Really, the cast is fairly large and nearly everyone gave solid performances. They were fun to watch on screen.

One of my complaints is how by-the-numbers The Hundred-Foot Journey felt. Sure, the Indian culture added a bit of a unique feel to it, but it follows almost the exact path you would probably guess if you only knew it was about cooking. There wasn't anything exciting or unexpected about the story in the least. What saves the film is that director Lasse Hallstrom takes that story and executes it very well. I do have to admit that the 122 minute run time felt a little long, but there's a lot of story to tell here. For the most part, Hallstrom did a good job with it.

In the end, I appreciated The Hundred-Foot Journey for what it was. It's another solid, entertaining movie about food (obviously, there's a lot more to it than that). While I enjoyed the movie, I didn't love it and I believe Hallstrom could have gotten more out of the story. A little more emotional connection would have been nice. Still, this is a worthwhile effort and a movie worth seeing.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 7



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