Get The Hundred-Foot Journey (Theatrical)
CUSTOMER REVIEW
Directed by Lasse Hallestrom (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Chocolat) from a screenplay by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises, Dirty Pretty Things) based on the book by Richard C. Morais, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a marvelous film, intimate in its setting but universal in its themes, and surprisingly romantic on more than one level.
The story is centered around Hasan Kadam (Manish Dayal), a young man from India who from early childhood has shown a natural instinct for food, a talent lovingly nurtured by his cook mother (Juhi Chawla) as he grows up working in the family restaurant in India. Tragedy comes early though as the family is attacked in a riot that follows an election, resulting in the restaurant being burned and his mother dying in the fire, which leads the family to leave the country. Papa Kadam (magnificently played by veteran Indian actor Om Puri) first takes the family to England, but after finding the weather too cold and the local food uninspiring, decides that they should try their luck in Europe instead. They journey around with the family and all of their possessions tucked into an old beat-up van, stopping here and there to sample the local produce, looking for the right place to start over again.
Fate steps in when they reach the French village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val where the van's brakes suddenly fail, resulting in an accident that leaves the family temporarily stranded. Fortunately a kind young Frenchwoman named Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon) notices their distress and takes them to her house where she gives them their first taste of local food. And then temporarily suddenly changes as Papa begins to look around, checking out the local produce market and coming across an abandoned restaurant that is for sale. Which leads him to announce to the startled family that they're staying, that this is the place they've been looking for. When Hassan asks his father, who apparently regularly consults his dead wife, what his mother thinks, Papa says in complete seriousness that she told him "Sometimes brakes break for a reason." And so they end up staying.
At first Papa's judgment seems highly questionable, first and foremost because the restaurant he's decided to buy is just across the road - a hundred feet to be exact - from a well-established and highly regarded one-star French haute cuisine restaurant run by the imperious Madame Mallory (equally magnificently played by veteran British actress Helen Mirren), who does not take the arrival of these upstart foreigners kindly. And in no time at all it's war between Papa and Madame Mallory, both resorting to all kinds of tricks and appeals to the much-beleaguered local mayor (Michel Blanc) to make life difficult for the other.
Complicating the situation further is the fact that Marguerite, whom Hassan is finding himself liking a great deal, works for Madame Mallory. And the fact that Hassan wants to learn to cook in the French style, setting up a kind of Romeo & Juliet situation. Except that in this case Hassan and Marguerite are also rivals, each wanting to move up as chefs but realizing that the other is their main competition.
Saying anything else would amount to being a spoiler. Suffice it to say that things develop in unexpected ways, not only between Hassan and Marguerite but also between Hassan and Madame Mallory. And between Madame Mallory and Papa. The film truly engages you as you watch things unfold, helped along by a marvelous cast in the hands of a gifted director telling a very intimate and yet universal themed story. Helping things along are the lush cinematography by Linus Sandgren (American Hustle, Promised Land) and a lovely mood-setting score by A. R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire, Million-Dollar Arm, 127 Hours) that flows easily back and forth between the traditional and modern as well as the European and Indian elements of the story.
Special acknowledgement should be given to Mirren and Puri's performances. Even though all of the actors involved give fine performances, Mirren and Puri absolutely dominate every scene they're in, and the scenes with the two of them together are priceless, particularly a scene where the two adversaries end up bargaining with each other across a table over Hassan's future. And I loved the scene where on the new Indian restaurant's opening night, Papa Kadam shows his family that just because they're in a different country with a different culture, it doesn't mean that his traditional old-fashioned ways of enticing customers into a restaurant won't work just as well in France as they did in India. And the scene where Mirren's Madame Mallory reacts to Hassan's attempt at preparing one of her restaurant's signature dishes stands out as well, showing in her facial expressions and body language the powerful emotional turmoil that the experience causes her.
Highly, highly recommended.