The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Slick... over produced...unrealistic...trite but tearful...

I certainly enjoyed this film and it made me smile. IMDb classes this as comedy and drama but I wouldn't say there is much drama in it. You know who will fall in love and the plot follows exactly the journey you expect. It's not on the level of something like Four Weddings where you laugh, you cry, you smile, you cover your mouth with your hand in shock but it's still worth a watch if you want a little heart warming and not much of a challenge.Manish Dayal (Hassan) and Charlotte Le Bon (Marguerite) are the eye candy but the real stars here are, of course, Helen Mirren (Madame Mallory) and Om Puri (Papa). Their initial warring did make me smile, though it isn't laugh out loud, and their eventual romance is genuine and subtle.Everyone has a heart of gold and those who don't are (as with all good comedy romances) served their just desserts following their indiscretions.Helen Mirren yet again proves how much she deserves that Oscar. You really can't go wrong when you see her name in the cast.

How interested am I in food movies? Well not that much it turns out! I didn't actually dislike this film as it is quite pretty to look at especially some of the fresh young faces (and also the ones not so young). But it sets out to be a "feel-good movie" and so it follows that it is distinctly unchallenging in its characterisations, themes and story lines. Young man, would-be chef, overcomes some not very painful challenges to make good and win the girl,ho-hum.The Helen Mirren character sets out to be the baddie but is won over. In fact no-one is very bad except one character who is cast out and rides off on his iron horse. After that everything is just "lovely". All the events in the movie are telegraphed from a mile away. The Indian family could have been interesting if their characters had been developed, except it doesn't really happen except for the father who I thought did act well. I would have to describe it as a weak movie except for the eye candy aspects which keep you watching, despite not having much respect for the whole affair. Overall it just hovers on the pass mark, 5/10.

Canadian Buddhist Richard Morais wrote the bestselling Swiss-based novel here shifted to a rural French setting (a wise geographical move, since it raises the relevance and familiarity markedly). Helen Mirren steals the show as starchy French snob Madame Mallory, who is nevertheless big enough to make a better person out of herself when small-town bigotry raises its ugly head. That bigotry is focused against an Indian family who have the temerity to establish a curry house just across the street (i.e. 100 feet away) from a long-established, high-class and extremely traditional French restaurant. Escalating conflict follows, though this eventually transmogrifies into an effort against the common "enemy" of the Michelin awarders of stars (one more of which Mallory's restaurant would greatly desire to possess).On the Indian side, great parts are played by an excellent Om Puri as the patriarch sparring with Mallory's matriarch (no prizes for guessing where that leads proximately, and then ultimately; if in the most delightful of ways, it must be said). Manish Dayal plays "Papa's" gifted-chef son Hassan. There's also a creditable performance by Charlotte Le Bon as Marguerite, the love interest for Hassan in a mini "Romeo and Juliet" setup.It's all well-acted, pretty to look at, sporadically funny, well thought-through and reasonably done as a story, though mostly predictable enough. It's a huge pleasure to watch, nonetheless. There are points to be made about multicultural France, though the film is too gentle, or plays it a bit too safe, to hammer these home as it might. But that certainly does not mean they are absent altogether.What we do have, however - in abundance, thanks to Lasse Hallstrom's direction, Steven Knight's screenplay, Linus Sandgren's cinematography and even A.R. Rahman's music - is a homage to great world cuisines and their cultural connotations and associations and meaning. We obtain Proust-like reminders of how foods and their aromas bring back memories good and bad, and in general how very emotional food and its preparation can be. As "Bakeoff" viewers can be all-too aware, the very act of eating can be (and here is) seen as a kind of aggressive one, just as well as it may be pseudo-sexual and above all an act that satisfies needs basic and obvious, and less basic and obvious. People reconcile over a meal, but it may also provoke anger or competitiveness, jealousy or disappointment (or even illness). Likewise, preparation can be a heady mix of the artistic and the scientific, the erotic and the violent. Ingredients (at times as precious as gold) are chopped and thrashed, but also creamed and blended. Flavours are coaxed and teased out, and every effort is made to achieve innovation, apparent spontaneity and creative sparkle by way of extreme discipline and control.All of these aspects are writ large in the film, to the point where an attentive viewer can actually tick off just how many different ones have been brought to the attention. It's quite fun to do this, and I actually recommend it for those keen to give this piece its due recognition as a very nice piece of point-making art.