Review of Burnt (2015) by Dee F — 23 Oct 2015

Louise and I have been enjoying fine dining, almost as a hobby, ever since we met some 6 years ago.

We have delighted in many fine feasts in places like Jacques Reymonde and Shannon Bennett's Vue de Monde, both of which have those elusive 3 hats that are assigned by the most harshest of critics.

So it was with a certain amount of gusto that we checked in today to view Bradley Cooper's new culinary flick in "Burnt" at the Ace Cinemas.

Our favourite cuisine is without doubt French as was fortunately the case for the setting of this movie.

Bradley Cooper played the part of a 2 Michelin Star chef, Adam Jones, who had weaned himself out of a life to self-destruction via alcohol, women & drugs, to return to a previous place of employment to try and gain that almost impossible 3rd Michelin Star (Michelin Stars are the European equivalent to 'Hats' in Oz).

The maitre dee of this prestigious restaurant and son of it's owner, Tony, played by Daniel Bruhl, decided to give Adam another chance and at the same time hope to boost it's own popularity. Daniel Bruhl really and truly nailed his performance and ended up being a key player as the story unfolded.

Adam then recruited some of his cronies that he'd worked with in the past, as well as convincing a talented chef from a another successful restaurant, Helene portrayed by Sienna Miller, to join him on this quest for cooking immortality.

Bradley and Sienna have teamed up in other movies prior to this one (eg: "American Sniper") and seem to have a really good on screen chemistry that makes their romantic liaison in this film all that more believable.

Bradley was amazing to say the least in this role and once again showed us all how talented he is when it comes to playing parts that demand the most extreme bipolar characters.

I think I may even have a bit of a man crush in regards to young Bradley...no homo!!

Apparently he met with the F-bomb King of cooking, Gordon Ramsay, during the making of this movie so as to pick up all the nuances and pressures of cooking at a 3 Michelin Star venue.

With the amount of stress in these kitchens one can only imagine how high their cortisol levels must be, so high that their own testosterone levels must suppressed to that of a 6 day old corpse!!

The frenzy in the kitchen was depicted superbly and reminded me of my HIT workouts at the gym with the incredible high intensity on display, I guess you could call this HIT cooking!!

So for anyone like me that loves gourmet food, watching shows like Masterchef, Anthony Bourdain & Heston Blumenthal you will froth and salivate at some of the brilliantly filmed cooking scenes and feel like heading off to Fraser's in Kings Park for a feed afterwards!!

If, however, you begrudge spending money in high end restaurants and are simply as happy as a pig in sh!t with good old fish & chips or are one of those militantly fussy, anal retentive vegans, then you may find this movie a tad mundane and disinteresting.

Mr CW would rather spend $250 for a 15 course degustation over 4-5 hours at Vue de Monde than the same amount of money at a rock concert getting pushed and shoved around for a couple of hours with a crappy view.

Even if this isn't your cup of tea, go watch the movie anyway, you never know it might change your mind.

Also look out for a couple of cool cameos by an almost unrecognisable Uma Thurman, who looks like she has had more cosmetic work done than the late great Joan Rivers and the evergreen Emma Thomson who by contrast seems to be ageing gracefully and naturally.

All in all, a terrific hour and forty minutes and definitely worth a look on the big screen.

CW's rating this time around...4 Michelin Stars!! lol.