Tasty culture clash
Film
The Hundred-Foot Journey (PG)
3 stars
'''Helen Mirren, Om Puri
DIRECTOR LASSE HALLSTROM
REVIEW MARK NAGLAZAS'''
Lasse Hallstrom's lush, lip-smacking adaptation of Richard C. Morais' bestselling novel about a pair of belligerent, battling restaurateurs in a picturesque French town is so fanciful, so full of retro imagery and moments it makes Ratatouille seem a hard-hitting expose of the nation's gastronomic tradition.
It's the kind of movie in which an imperious dame still uses a rotary dial telephone, an amorous young man stands under his lady love's window and throws stones to get her attention (as opposed to texting images of his private parts) and little girls in waifish dresses play hopscotch in the town square.
Indeed, Hallstrom is so skilful in erasing the modern world from The Hundred-Foot Journey it was a half an hour into the movie before I realised it was actually set in the present (and even then I kept scanning the screen for evidence that I was right).
But a journey back in time is why we holiday in places such as France and why we go to movies like The Hundred-Foot Journey, which is best regarded as a companion piece to Hallstrom's earlier foodie fairytale, Chocolat, right down to the more conservative elements turning on their exotic new neighbours, in this case an Indian family who have started a restaurant.
After fleeing political turbulence in their country and finding the vegetables in England "have no taste", Mumbai restaurant proprietor Papa Kadam (Om Puri) and his family move on to the French countryside where their vehicle breaks down on the outskirts of a pretty town and they are rescued by an even prettier woman named Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), who happens to be the sous-chef in a local Michelin-starred eatery (not for nothing is the film released by Disney).
Directly across the road from Marguerite's traditional French establishment (the 100 feet of the title) is an abandoned restaurant whose owners were driven out of business by the ruthless tactics of Marguerite's overbearing boss Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren).
Madame Mallory has every intention of also slicing and dicing Papa and his family. However, the Indian interlopers have a secret weapon, Papa's son Hassan (Manish Dayal), whose tandoori chicken is so heavenly that soon the locals are flocking to this colourful new restaurant, setting the scene for the culinary equivalent of a civil war.
The Hundred-Foot Journey is at its tastiest when its focus is on the clash of cultures and cuisines, allowing its two great veteran stars, Mirren and Puri, to go at it hammer and tongs or, more accurately, knife and ladle, with two great gastronomic traditions fighting for the hearts and minds of the good folk of Saint-Antoine-Noble-Var.
Unfortunately, Hallstrom lets his dish simmer rather than turning up the heat, bringing both warring parties together after one of Madame Mallory's xenophobic cooks crosses the line into violence and paving the way for cultural and familial fusion that warms the cockles but doesn't make for great drama or comedy. The food on display is first-rate but as far as movie-making goes The Hundred-Foot Journey is more of a Happy Meal.
Indeed, the later part of the film curdles from fairytale into pure Mills & Boon as Hassan is snapped up by an haute-cuisine establishment atop the Pompidou Centre, in which he casts aside his Indian traditions and becomes a Heston Blumenthal-style rock star of molecular gastronomy.
It's an interesting twist in the tale but rushed through so swiftly it comes across as pure soap, with the lonely, culturally disconnected Hassan skulking around Paris like a character in a Victor Hugo novel. His family are not back in Mumbai but an hour away on the train, for goodness sakes.
But Hallstrom is a master of mush so it all goes down easily, washed down by a nice red which you will no doubt be having with the post-screening meal this film will undoubtedly inspire.
The Hundred-Foot Journey is now screening.
