Review of The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) by Johnny T — 30 Aug 2014

The Hundred-Foot Journey represents a pleasant diversion for those who have grown weary of traditional summer movie fare. The picture is about people and how they interact. There are no explosions or car chases. Director Lasse Hallström does lovely work and Helen Mirren is always worth watching, but The Hundred-Foot Journey travels predictable ground already covered by countless feel-good dramedies. There's comfort food and there are comfort movies. In Lasse Hallstrom's The Hundred-Foot Journey, you get a full helping of both. And guess what? It's all very comforting. Linus Sandgren's lush camerawork and the glittering, throbbing musical score by A. R. Rahman contribute a distinctive flavor of their own. The performances are superb. Hallström, who also directed Chocolat, follows the foodie-cinema aesthetic by filming the dishes in a gleaming sumptuousness designed to make you famished. The result is that this is one of those rare movies that gets better as it goes along. Predictably convenient but gently entertaining film about how cooking can bridge cultures and persuade the passions. The film is strong if unsurprising and does exactly what the filmmakers and the audience wanted it to do. A luminous Helen Mirren leads a first-rate cast in this familiar but thoroughly charming and appealing culture-clash, food-centered romantic comedy.

VERDICT: "High-Quality Stuff" - [Positive Reaction] This is a rating to a movie I view as very entertaining and well made, and definitely worth paying the full price at a theatre to see or own on DVD. It is not perfect, but it is definitely excellent. (Films that are rated 3.5 or 4 stars).