Chef's Special (2008)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Excellent adaptation.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

According to the back-of-the-box this film was a big hit in Spain. That's hard to believe as there are a lot of great films made in Spain and Chef's Special is the sort of pointless nonsense one usually finds in sitcoms on prime time TV.The plot...I'm not going to bother mentioning the plot other than the unbelievable romantic aspect of the story which involves a seemingly grounded former football star falling for a chef who is a complete buffoon.At best Chef's Special could be described as a farce (and that would be a very generous description) but it's really little more than cliché ridden slapstick full of awful characters. If you're looking for wacky gay comedy skip Chef's Special and watch The Birdcage again.

I hesitated between "4" and "7" as the movie isn't really bad but also not very excellent either. In regards to the homophobic conservatism that exists actually, it's good to have a light movie that involves gays. On the other hand, the movie is really heavy as the funny lines are crude, full of clichés. In fact, the movie depicts a bit gays like a special gender and maybe like fragile people who were expected to hide. I don't think it's fair. Beyond this, i don't really care about gays: they can do whatever they like but i never understood the need to have gay movies shelves in shops. What interests me is a good story and a good story involves every one.Another problem is that the movie runs after too much themes: it can be a movie about restaurant, but also a romance or about single parenthood. If the cast and production is top, finally, i felt like watching a sitcom and that's not the definition of a movie!

Nacho G. Velilla, primarily a writer & director of Spanish Television co-wrote & directed this delight.Even though there is much comedy there are serious moments as well.I have noticed that unlike comedies from The US & UK,films from Spain contain dramatic sub-plots. FUERA DE CARTA (Chef's Special) fits that genre perfectly.There are a few very silly scenes as well as a few dramatic ones.This is a tale of a middle aged quite flamboyant chef & owner of an up-scale restaurant. He was estranged from his family,his ex-wife dies in scene 2, leaving his near 16 year old son & 6 year old daughter in his care. His Maitre-d' is a sex-starved woman.I say no more, as you can guess & be right or wrong where this is going. Just go with the flow & enjoy.Some scenes are silly (as I said) & the film a a bit longer than a comic farce should be. Neither the comic or dramatic moments go overboard.The acting by all concerned is excellent, most are probably' well known performers in Spain.These ALL are seasoned actors.The food also is delicious looking as well.As I said this is a bit flawed & a a bit overlong, BUT I feel you all will enjoy it as much as I did. One reviewer said some scenes are homophobic, not so, as the actor saying the lines obviously had a stroke & does not realize what he is saying. (the mother in Golden Girls was the same way & no one thought she was homophobic)There are no hateful characters or situations,just regular people in comic,farce situationsRatings: *** (out of 4) 86 points (out of 1000 IMDb 8 (out of 10)

I saw this film afraid of what I was going to see was going to be something like Chuecatown (a self indulgent comedy about gays just for a group of gays). But I found something much better suitable for broader audiences.There are gay characters but the story show them as people with their good and their bad things. They are not idealistic perfect, nor the weeping victims of society, not evil, they're just persons. And that's a good staring point for the "normalization" of gay people also in movies.Of course there are some stereotyped behaviors, either from gay or heterosexual characters, but fits very well in the play, and are not very far away from some real truths.Most of gags work very well, the story is credible and having in mind that is a comedy for all family is a good entertainment. Maybe in some countries that prefer kids to watch violence than love scenes it can be somewhat slightly sexy, but here it is perfectly suitable for all family, as I think it should be.A very good "Opera-Prima" for a director/writer of sitcoms in Spain TV channels.