Helen Mirren

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.

Do you like the following things: French or Indian  food, gorgeous scenery, a picture book French village, actress Helen Mirren, Cinderella stories, romantic comedies,  beautiful people falling in love, and perfect happy endings with no loose ends, then go see “The Hundred- Foot Journey.”  If you see it at the Monmouth Mall,  you can sink down into those plush chairs, elevate your legs, and laugh and cry all in the same show.

The “Hundred- Foot Journey” is a visually beautiful movie and it is fun to watch the restaurant war between Mirren’s Michelin one-star establishment and the immigrant Indian family-run  masala and tandoori palace 100 feet across the street.

This film is like a string of pearls where each pearl is a predictable component that had to be included, like the love affair between the superstar Indian chef and the lovely sous-chef working in the kitchen across the street.  The food photography is so sensuous  that critics call it “food porn.”   Much of the movie is improbable, and suspending disbelief is hard for me, but others, like Eileen, get sucked into the whole package and don’t allow themselves to find anything implausible in this sugar-coated movie.

The male Indian stars Om Puri (the Indian patriarch) and Manish Dayal  (the young talented chef)  were excellent, and I, a confirmed people watcher,  really enjoyed the cultural portrayals of the characters on both sides of the street.

69 year old Helen Mirren was wonderful as the perfectionist who lusts for another Michelin star. She is angry towards the Indians one hundred feet away, but after awhile she sees things differently. It’s not even clear why this fancy restaurateur  is worried about the new establishment across the street.  Some of the characters are flimsily drawn, leaving you wondering, “Who are they?”

One of the pearls which  was included, just to heat things up, was a passionate inter-racial love scene—- well, it  is just an extra long and complicated kiss.  Actually, the movie contains no actual sex  (not that I’m an expert on what actual sex is or even what is is.)

However, unless you are a hard core cynic, you probably will really enjoy this movie.  It’s the sort of film that people say, “Why don’t they make movies like that anymore?”

We give this film three Blogfingers

Here is a trailer:

A.H. RAHMAN    From the soundtrack:  “You Complete Me.”