Chef (2014)
A hoot. Well constructed, well acted feel-good comedy about a chef who wants to cook from the heart.
This is a formula film, for sure. You are made to fall in love with the main characters (mostly one of them, writer, director, and leading man Jon Favreau). Then things go wrong. Some are comic, some are sad, but all is told in a way you know will end just fine, more or less. And so it goes.
Because Favreau got his Hollywood creds as a producer ("Iron Man" series) he has lots of connections, and he cashed in some favors here. Small parts are given to several stellar players. Scarlett Johansson is a charming hostess at the restaurant, though she isn't given a lot to do. Dustin Hoffman plays the reasonable but hard headed owner at odds with the chef. And Robert Downey Jr. himself shows up as an ex-wife's ex-husband with his usual charm and screen presence. Briefly.
So the movie bustles along. The script is really funny—even in small moments the lines and the delivery work well. The boy, played by Emjay Anthony, is superb, holding up a key emotional part of the movie. Favreau, the actor, manages to seem like both the impassioned chef and the warm dad in believable ways.
Eventually the plot turns into a road trip, which is always fun, and we get touristy visits to Miami, New Orleans, and Austin. It's all so feel good you want actually for something more to happen. Yes, the problem with the movie is the formula thing, which it sticks to too well. And there are lots of little scenes, some of them musical inserts, that sound and look great but that drag down the momentum.
And the big ending is far too sugary for me. The movie doesn't quite lift its excesses into a fable, or into a style that justifies them. Instead it shamelessly uses pumped up music, great characters, and a triumphant plot to work you over. And make you feel good, which is pretty good.
A hoot. Well constructed, well acted feel-good comedy about a chef who wants to cook from the heart.
This is a formula film, for sure. You are made to fall in love with the main characters (mostly one of them, writer, director, and leading man Jon Favreau). Then things go wrong. Some are comic, some are sad, but all is told in a way you know will end just fine, more or less. And so it goes.
Because Favreau got his Hollywood creds as a producer ("Iron Man" series) he has lots of connections, and he cashed in some favors here. Small parts are given to several stellar players. Scarlett Johansson is a charming hostess at the restaurant, though she isn't given a lot to do. Dustin Hoffman plays the reasonable but hard headed owner at odds with the chef. And Robert Downey Jr. himself shows up as an ex-wife's ex-husband with his usual charm and screen presence. Briefly.
So the movie bustles along. The script is really funny—even in small moments the lines and the delivery work well. The boy, played by Emjay Anthony, is superb, holding up a key emotional part of the movie. Favreau, the actor, manages to seem like both the impassioned chef and the warm dad in believable ways.
Eventually the plot turns into a road trip, which is always fun, and we get touristy visits to Miami, New Orleans, and Austin. It's all so feel good you want actually for something more to happen. Yes, the problem with the movie is the formula thing, which it sticks to too well. And there are lots of little scenes, some of them musical inserts, that sound and look great but that drag down the momentum.
And the big ending is far too sugary for me. The movie doesn't quite lift its excesses into a fable, or into a style that justifies them. Instead it shamelessly uses pumped up music, great characters, and a triumphant plot to work you over. And make you feel good, which is pretty good.