5/10

Helen Mirren and Om Puri are dueling restaurant owners who are bent on putting the other out of business in the culinary commentary on searching to find happiness far away when it was already at home. Compared to this year’s Chef, The Hundred Foot Journey doesn’t do anything besides offer table dressing of delicious foods. The movie would be a lot better if it understood just how predictable a story like this will be and get to that point in 90 minutes. What should’ve been the ending happens with about 25 minutes left of the movie, and the rest of the film after that feels like we have stuffed ourselves on bland and boring. One problem that i had with this film that no doubt no one else will have is the character’s pure extacy of eating these foods and then not giving many descriptions to go with those tastes. It sounds like i am being a harsh critic, but in a food film it is those adjectives that paint the picture for the food that we as the audience can even find ourselves tasting at times. Chef did this better than any other food film i have ever seen. One positive is that the performances are definitely there. Mirren could pretty much act in her sleep at this point. She gives “Journey” the remote little spark that it even has playing a take no attitude kind of French woman who is a little possessive when it comes to the areas that she feels are rightfully hers. She doesn’t have completely evil intentions when it comes to putting out her competition, but she will do enough to make sure it’s her hand that is raised in victory. Puri is also satisfying in his first major American film role. He is a world wide treasure that has been locked away for far too long. I would like to see him in more comedies with a story that isn’t quite tame and predictable. Director Lasse Hallstrom has directed some really deep and impactful characters in his time, so i don’t quite put the blame on him. Between Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Lasse shows that he can paint a situation that will glue you to your seat. I can only hope that this is a minority result and not a majority when it comes to the later part of his career. What i wish the film would’ve explored more was the cultural discrimination between the French and Indian cultures that inhabbited the area. It seems like the producers laid out an outline for this movie to take on dark tones at time, but didn’t want to alienate the audience who paid to watch a feel good story. The beautiful shots of France paint a charasmatic culture where these patrons are living for food, and it’s in that atmosphere where the movie succeeds during the first 2/3 of the film. The food is there, the story is there, but the ending is dull and a foregone conclusion. The crowd that i saw the movie with was an older crowd, and i think that is where the movie will succeed the most. I can’t see a younger 20-30 year old audience getting much pleasure from this movie. Anyone with little patience in a movie will be defeated before it even gets going. I would ask my readers to watch the trailer and see how you feel after you do. If you seem interested, then there might be enough to hold your creative appetite in favor of the colorful dishes and witty banter. The Hundred Foot Journey takes us on a journey much longer than the title’s mentioned distance. It’s a film that had potential, but should’ve done like Puri’s character mentioned and “Turned the heat up”.