Chef

As I've been exposing myself to new types of movies and different filmmakers, I sometimes feel like I'm trying new food. CHEF, directed by and starring Jon Favreau, was a delightful little indie "dish" and an immensely satisfying treat. It's about a chef, Carl Casper (Favreau), who works for this French restaurant. One night a critic (Oliver Platt) comes in and later posts a scathing review on Twitter that goes viral. Carl, a little bit new to social media, inadvertently starts a flame war with the critic and challenges him to come back because he'll cook the menu he wanted to cook the first time around. Things don't end up going so well, and Carl leaves his job as chef and takes his ex-wife's (Sofia Vergara) advice about starting a food truck. Narratively, the film is somewhat divided. The first third or so is more of a traditional "food" movie with some relationship drama thrown in, but at a critical point the film shifts gears into a road trip movie. Structure aside, I thought that they did a great job balancing the food aspects (which looked amazing) and the character relationships. The key relationship is between Carl and his son, who comes along with him on his food truck journey. It was really great to see how the relationship changed and improved over the course of the film. Something should also be said for the cast. Although most of them have relatively small roles, Favreau was able to call in some favors and get Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, John Leguizamo and Sofia Vergara to appear here. Even though most of these people only appear in the first half when Carl works at the restaurant (and are therefore dropped once the narrative switches gear), it was still nice to see them. I thought they all gave excellent performances, even for such small roles. The only iffy member of the cast was the boy who plays Carl's son who, at times, seemed like a blank slate. Maybe that was intentional? I don't know, but he also is a child actor so I won't make too big a deal out of it. The only other aspect of the movie I find fault with is the way in which the film ends, which I won't spoil here. All I'll say about it is that it was a little TOO nice and clean. That being said, I thought that CHEF really worked on an emotional level. Overall, it might not be the best film I've ever seen, but it had a feelgood atmosphere, great dialogue and some great cooking. Bon appetit!

At an early point in Chef, the title character cooks a grilled cheese sandwich for his 10-year-old son, Percy. It's a familiar recipe —bread, butter, and cheese — but the way that the camera lingers on the melting cheese, and the care taken in how the food was served, made me want to reach into the screen and take a bite. If Chef were a meal, it would be comfort food. When comfort food is done right, boy oh boy does it hit the spot.

Favreau directs and stars as Carl Casper, a celebrated chef at a swanky Los Angeles restaurant, whose creativity and integrity is compromised by the restaurant's controlling owner. After a video of him losing his temper at a food critic goes viral he becomes not only unemployed, but unemployable. With his reputation in shreds, he decides to get back in touch with his roots by opening a food truck and taking it – along with line cook and son - on the road, rediscovering his passion along the way.

The pairing of sumptuous shots of food preparation with Latin beats is hard to resist for most audiences, and the food shots in Chef are so luscious and evocative that you can almost smell what's cooking. The music, sensual and spicy, is perfectly matched to the food. There's a beauty and a rhythm in the food preparation scenes and the amount of them included in the film is just right, so as not to feel over indulgent.

There is also a lot of enjoyment to be had from watching the performances of the supporting cast, and perhaps this is because each of them play to their strengths: Robert Downey Jr steals the scene as Casper's ex-wife's other ex-husband who is rich, generous, and always looks like he's on the verge of doing something really crazy; Sofia Vegara plays Casper's sweet, sexy, well- meaning ex-wife, who he is still great friends with; John Leguizamo, always an interesting actor to watch, has fantastic chemistry with Favreau and the young actor who plays his son, and some of the more meandering scenes in the film are made interesting by his infectious energy; and Dustin Hoffman adds an element of compassion to a role that could have easily been reduced to a caricature. The stars featuring in the film stay firmly within their safe zone, and I couldn't help but remember what Hoffman tells Favreau early in the movie: play your hits, because no one wants to go to a Rolling Stones concert and not hear 'Satisfaction'. While this can have the potential to be boring, it bodes well for the film: we know we're in safe hands, and we're going to come out of this feeling satisfied. Special mention must be made of Emjay Anthony, who plays Favreau's son Percy with the perfect blend of maturity and innocence, and is really the emotional centre of the film.

While the film is certainly a feast for the senses, at its core it's about restoration: restoring the father-son relationship, and restoring passion. It's hard to ignore the parallels to Favreau's own career: after breaking out in the 1996 indie hit Swingers, Favreau has in recent years become a director of the mega-blockbusters: the first two Iron Man movies, and the less well-received Cowboys & Aliens. Here, he cleanses his palate as a director and returns to more down-to-earth, feel-good fare (there's even a dead-on remark about Casper's/Favreau's "dramatic weight gain". Ouch). A familiar recipe made with great ingredients, Chef will leave you feeling satisfied.

A very enjoyable film, fun storyline, great acting, and an amazing soundtrack. Loved the journey and genuinely felt invested in the characters and story.

I'm no foodie but I really enjoyed this road-trip / father-son / buddy movie, written directed by and starring Jon Favreau, based on the recent life and times of a perfectionist chef who struggles to suppress his own innovation to the demands of his conservative paymaster boss. More than this, he gets involved in a spat with the town's number 1 food critic, sees his relationship with his son founder under pressure of work and still pines after his glamorous and super-rich ex-wife.

There's not much more to the story than that and I feared for all the anticipated parental-bonding scenes I would see the second I clapped eyes on his flop-haired 10 year old son but I was very pleasantly surprised to be engaged by this lighthearted, fast-moving, feel-good movie, right up to the predictable happy ending for all concerned.

With a busy but enjoyable soundtrack of soul and salsa in the background, nice realistic acting by all the leads right down to son Percy and of course lots of scrumptious shots of freshly made food, this movie certainly mixed its ingredients together well, delivering in the end a most palatable dish.

Perhaps the star-power cameos were a little unnecessary, maybe the father-son stuff did get a little hokey at times and the wraparound happy ending did seem somewhat forced but on the whole I found this a very watchable and occasionally funny movie which more than whetted my appetite for a decent Saturday night stay-in movie.

I really enjoyed this funny and heart-warming movie about a chef and his relationship with food and his son. The film is worth about 8.5 in my books. The current IMDb score is roughly accurate, despite the inexplicably negative reviews and voting of a tiny minority.

Leguizamo and Vergara light up every scene they're in. Quite a few A-list Hollywood stars are in this movie, but it's not a Hollywood movie at all. The performances by all the main and supporting actors were excellent. When I try to single one or two out, I just start thinking about how good the others were too.

You feel like the movie had no script at all, that's how natural the writing was. Remarkably cliché-free.

I was subtly but deftly moved at the end. This is an optimistic guy movie but women will enjoy it as well.

Kudos to Favreau (of course) and to everyone else involved in this film. I have a new respect for Favreau and will watch out for his films in the future.