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“The Hundred-Foot Journey” is a bit old-fashioned in its sentiments and, according to Melanie, a little corny. It’s a character film based on a best-selling novel whose literary pedigree is on display in the intelligent structure and clever dialogue. (Early in the movie a car’s brakes fail and a character says, “Sometimes brakes break for a reason.” That’s a real writer’s line, a clever line, and it gets repeated.) This is an effective, feel-good movie, well-motivated, with intelligently drawn characters.
Helen Mirren’s Madame Mallory is the standout, showing character growth through the film, something great actors thrive on. Or maybe they create it. None of the other characters has quite so developed an arc. Why? The screenwriters (Steven Knight and Richard C. Morais) have no reason to flesh out one character more than the others, so you have to conclude the character’s nicely executed transition is at least partly the result of Mirren’s talent. The other main characters are also shaped by events through the film, but only Mirren fully satisfies as being multi-dimensional; the other actors are a bit one-note in comparison. They’re not bad, but when you consider the depths Mirren pulls from her character, you understand a bit more what makes her so good.
The movie is about an Indian family whose restaurant is burned down during social and political unrest. They emigrate to Europe with no clear idea of where they’ll end up. While driving by a small French village, their car breaks down and they go into town looking for repairs. Serendipitously the town has an abandoned restaurant for sale, so the father of the brood – Papa, played with humor and warmth by Om Puri – decides this is where they’ll stay. They live in and restore the restaurant, which is across the road – exactly 100 feet - from a Michelin one-star restaurant. Helen Mirren runs the Michelin restaurant and doesn’t welcome these illiterate foreigners who dare to bring their lack of sophistication and vulgar cuisine to her town (not to mention the possibility of their stealing her patrons). Tensions soon spring up between the two factions and we get a lot of expected cultural biases and stereotypes, some mined for humor, and some depicted less pleasantly.
One of the sons in the Indian family - Hassan Haji played by Manish Dayal - has a passion for food and cooking. There’s a pretty young French woman working for the enemy (Madame Mallory) who attracts Haji’s attention, as you know she will from the moment they meet. Of course he’s attracted, look at her smile, she could be a movie actress. She’s the sunny Marguerite played by Charlotte Le Bon. We expect a relationship to form between the two attractive young people, and one does, though not exactly as we expect.
We follow as Haji’s skill grows to the point where Madame Mallory offers him an apprenticeship of six months at her restaurant. She sees a future in him and thinks they’ll both benefit from the experience, she by getting a second Michelin star with Haji on her staff, and Haji by learning French culinary methods to add to his repertoire. It’s a nice story development and feels organically motivated. From that point on the movie shifts away from the two factions and focuses more on Haji’s growth. The movie loses a bit of its warmth in doing that; I would have liked seeing more of Haji’s family in the second half of the film.
This is a “food” movie and it seems there’s been a lot of them lately. Like the others, this one gives you mouth-watering shots of food being prepared and eaten, something dubbed by critics as “food porn.” But that term, already a cliché, is too dismissive here. I’m not sure it’s easy to film food in a way that makes you desire it, almost taste it. For me, these shots, images, and montages of food work. And, like many of the other food-centric movies I’ve seen lately, this one isn’t about food so much as about life and love. That’s a metaphor we’ve seen before, yes, but it works here.
Of course we expect the initial animosities to eventually thaw, and they do, but it’s done well and you go with it. Melanie called the movie too predictable, and though I understand her point and could also tell where the major storylines were going, I took a lot of pleasure in letting the movie get there. We know in every movie there are going to be elements we’ve seen before. Certain devices are almost required to tell a story we’ll follow and be interested in. We know we’ll get conflicts of some kind, and romances will probably start, almost fail, then rekindle. But when these are properly baked (ahem), the movie works.
This movie works. It’s charming with rich scenery and evocative cinematography (despite the cheesy Disney-animation fireworks). There’s a great tracking shot that weaves in and out and over and under the action as people work to restore the restaurant. I didn’t expect that kind of cinematic enthusiasm in a movie like this. The shot doesn’t call a lot of attention to itself, but moves along at a leisurely pace like the rest of the movie. Yes, the movie is leisurely, but in a good way, don’t confuse “leisurely” with “boring.” The movie has a steady, believable rhythm.
Most of the time. There are flaws. Haji’s rise seems to happen too quickly, too easily. Where and how exactly did he learn his techniques? We know his mother taught him Indian cuisine, and he seems to have had an innate understanding of food from a young age, and Marguerite does give Haji French cook books on the sly, AND he has his apprenticeship under Madam Mallory, but he's depicted almost as a bit of a savant; it doesn't sufficiently explain his rise.
Yes, the big relationships that form are predictable, but that doesn’t make them unsatisfying. I like the relationship between Haji and Marguerite. They’re clearly attracted to each other, but they don’t rush into bed together, this isn’t that kind of movie. The characters are thoughtful and deliberate. Actions and behaviors are measured and believable. Marguerite also yearns to become a successful chef. As they get closer, she clues Haji in on some of Madam Mallory’s secrets. Later, when Haji is offered the internship by Madam Mallory, he rushes to share his good fortune with Marguerite. But Marguerite is jealous and angry and accuses him of using her to get the position. He tries to console her, and in a lesser movie he’d win her over, but not here. It’s a nice moment. We learn she’s as driven to succeed as he is and won’t be reduced to being a supportive girlfriend – or any other kind of girlfriend, from the way things are looking.
There are other well-played scenes that help define the characters. At one point earlier in the movie, when Haji is rebuffed by Madame Mallory during an attempt at a truce, we expect Marguerite to offer consolation, but she doesn’t, and Haji is left to make sense of what happened on his own. Nice.
There’s another relationship that develops slowly with Madam Mallroy and someone. I won’t give it away, but there’s a nice scene at night where she walks away from her potential suitor, who feels rejected. The camera cuts away to Madam Mallory’s home and we see she's left the large bay doors wide open, her curtains billowing gently out in the evening air, a wonderfully suggestive and erotic invitation.
I enjoyed this one. It had great warmth, and if some of it is predictable, so what, it works.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hundred-Foot_Journey_(film)
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