The Hundred-Foot Journey Review
By David Kempler
Not Worth a Hundred Foot Trip
If you enjoyed Lasse Hallström's "Chocolat", there is a good chance you will similarly enjoy his "The Hundred-Foot Journey", but not necessarily. "Chocolat" was a sumptuous orgy of food. Hallström's latest has a few scenes that feature gorgeous-looking meals, but mostly it's an examination of clashing cultures. This could prove to be a tense premise, but here it is played with a little bit of humor, a dash of terror, and mostly a very easy exercise in lightness. The final effect leaves you with a sense of, oh that was sort of cute.
In the first scene, set in Mumbai, we meet the Kadam family. They have a large and successful restaurant and they all work there. Life is good. Within minutes, intruders storm the restaurant and set it on fire. It burns to the ground and the family matriarch perishes in the fire. The incident appears to be political in nature, but the specifics are omitted, because this not about politics.
Papa (Om Puri), the family patriarch, takes them out of the country and heads to Europe. They bounce around for a bit before ending up in a beautiful, small town in the lower Pyrenees, in France. Their journey ends there because their car has broken down and while they wait for the car to be road-worthy, Papa stumbles upon a deserted building with a For Sale sign. He immediately decides that it is their fate to buy the place and start a restaurant. There are many obstacles to his plan, with the primary one being that a mere 100 feet away, directly across the street, stands an enormously successful and well-respected French restaurant that caters to the local well-to-do.
To make things even more difficult, the restaurant is owned and run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren). She is snooty, exceedingly unlikeable, and totally determined to ensure that the new restaurant being built across the street goes belly-up as soon as possible.
Hassan (Manish Dayal), is the son of Papa and he has been tasked with following in the footsteps of his mother, who was a marvelous chef. Before her death, he was being groomed as the heir apparent. He believes in himself, but is not obnoxious about it. With the pieces mostly in place for a culinary battle, the sole missing piece is love. That is quickly thrown in when Hassan meets Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), a sous chef in the employ of Madame Mallory.
Unfortunately, except for a couple of moments of minor nastiness, the plot plows ahead intent on making us smile at all costs. Even the major conflicts are played with twinkles in everyone's eyes. I'm not sure if this is all put together to appeal to a mass audience, but it sure does feel that way.
All of the acting is okay, but no one is asked to stretch very much. Instead of real anger between the combatants, even at its most hostile, you can tell that everyone will end up on the same team, eventually. That makes it sweet, but nothing else. It's akin to going to a decent restaurant, but knowing you will never return. This is only worth the journey if it's not much more than a hundred feet out of your way.
