Review of Burnt (2015) by Tjman09 — 02 Nov 2015

Burnt, Bradley Cooper’s newest endeavor is a movie I believe his fans will enjoy, but not much more than that. After seeing last year’s “Chef” directed by Jon Favreau I realized that food related films can be great, they can show that cooking is an artform, and make you hungry at the same time. Burnt, however, borrows too many elements from the superior “Chef”, lacks good character development, and is sporadically paced. The one saving grace of the film was the great performances by it’s main cast.

Watching Chef I was completely engrossed is a movie about food, that also had a story behind it. The difference between Chef and Burnt, is the fact that Burnt deals with the world of petite dishes, and psychotic chefs, not as much about the food. The film resembles last year’s Whiplash, with a psycho leading a group of talented pupils, Ratatouille, and Chef, but fails to reach their level of excellence.

Throughout the film, characters come and go, most of which have next to no development. Bradley Cooper’s character has some development, and so does Sienna Miller’s but beyond that they are all flat and one dimensional. The acting, however, is excellent, for instance I struggled to even tell who Sienna Miller was until about halfway through the film, she totally transformed. Cooper as per usual was a reliable main cast member, but the film fell flat way too much.

That may be the film’s biggest problem, is that it failed to elevate way too often. For a two hour film, it often felt like two and half, dragging very seriously at times. The film had next to no humor, the food wasn’t very appetizing, and it all felt a little too familiar. The story is cliched, the conflict doesn’t always make sense, and the climax falls a little short.

In the end Bradley Cooper fans will likely enjoy Burnt, but besides that it lacks any real appeal. The acting is good, dare I say maybe even Oscar worthy, but way too many things go wrong for the film to elevate and be great, or even good. It may be a good idea to spend your money at another film.