The Hundred-Foot Journey, 2014.
Directed by Lasse Hallström.
Starring Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Juhi Chawla, Manish Dayal and Charlotte Le Bon.
SYNOPSIS:
The Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory’s Michelin-starred eatery.
If we based our pre-conceived notions of India and France on those in Lasse Hallstrom’s The Hundred-Foot Journey, all French women would be impossibly attractive who forage for mushrooms and all Indian men would reach climax as they smelled turmeric. Like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel gone before, The Hundred-Foot Journey exists to feign off boredom on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It’s not going to change the world, in fact it will inevitably be found in the bargain bin of your local Asda within the year.
Having moved from India after his mother was burnt to death following a (coincidental) political uprising, Hassan and his family travel to the UK before moving to the impossibly picturesque town of Saint-Antonin-Nobil-Val-a town in which the French eat cheese, drink wine and hoist their noses up to the new “ethnic” family. Hassan’s father (Om Puri) coincidentally finds an old abandoned restaurant coincidentally opposite La Saule Pleureur coincidentally owned by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren) who coincidentally lost her husband a few years before.
From their first coincidental breakdown to the coincidental fire midway through the film, The Hundred-Foot Journey exists solely through coincidences. No one speaks French, instead the English are burdened with grotesque, almost Monty Python. To ensure the audience are aware of the culture differences, Maison Mumbai is burdened with garish music, garish visual and garish lights to undermine the supposed subtlety of French cuisine. As Mirren declares, “curry is curry.”
At least the food is shot with a certain prowess. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren visually masturbates over Beef Bourguignon, Dhal and whatever crystallised beetroot is in slow-motion, forcing the audience to question the flaccid cheese sandwich they ate earlier.
At least young lead Manish Dayal has enough charisma to carry the film up until a turgid final twenty minutes where he is forced to grow designer stubble, wear designer clothing and drink designer alcohol. There is no subtlety, Dayal’s conflict is represented through supposed alcoholism while his on-off girlfriend Charlotte Le Bon glazes aimlessly at pepper’s while sipping wine.
In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need a film so reliant on awkward stereotypes and visual cues in order to create false sense of security. But this is a Lasse Hallstrom film. A director unaware of the outside world and too afraid to make a bold move. The Hundred-Foot Journey isn’t terrible but nor is it anything special.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Thomas Harris
