Chef (2014)

 

 

 

 

My Synopsis: After some ‘creative’ differences between the owner of the restaurant and the Head Chef. The Head Chef (Carl Casper) decides to take things into his own hands. Stepping outside the boundaries of his well-known and well secured job at the prestigious LA restaurant and embarking on his own business venture with his best mate, his ex-wife and his son in toe. Upon doing so he sparks up his passion for cooking, as well as his elation for life and love.

Director: John Favreau

Producer(s): Jon Favreau, Karen Gilchrist, Sergei Bespalov

Writer: Jon Favreau

Stars: Jon Favreau, Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, Scarlett Johansson, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey, Jr., Emjay Anthony

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Adventure

MY PORTRAYAL OF THE MOVIE:

The movie starts with Cuban music playing in the background and Carl (Jon Favreau) the head chef of a top LA restaurant is in his kitchen working with passion, intensity and creativity to develop an exciting new menu for tonight special guest, a well renowned food critic and blogger Ramsey Michel (Oliver Pratt). The night does not go as planned due to differences between Riva (Dustin Hoffman) the restaurant owner and Carl, as Riva insists on servicing the tried and tested menu rather than go with the new Carl designed menu.  It seems that due to this choice, Carl receives an unfavourable review. The review is then retweeted and this sparks an online twitter war between Carl and Ramsey Michel. Carl challenges Ramsey to another review. This time Carl is adamant on serving his own menu, in comes Riva (who plays the villain in the movie) and pulls the rug from underneath him again. His stubborn bossy behaviour pushes Carl too far and he throws in the towel. From that moment the story started to develop.

As he sits at home considering his next direction, his ex-wife, Inez (Sofia Vegara) suggests he accompanies her and their son Percy (Emjay Anthony) to Miami. After some consideration he decides to go to Miami which brings back many fond memories. He finds himself with a beaten up old food truck organised by Inezs’ ex-husband Marvin (Robert Downey Jr).  It is here the journey starts, a journey that looks like a mission to create a successful food truck business but turns out to be much much more. Carl and his son’s relationship is shown to be one of friends more than father and son, but as Carl and his son Percy work together to get the truck up and running there are noticeable changes that appear.  A car pulls up and out comes Carls ex –assistant and good mate Martin (John Leguizamo) who decides to also join them on their new journey. There is some great comradery between all three boys as they make their way from Miami back to LA via New Orleans and Austin Texas. The pursuit to start his own venture pays off and pays of well. Carls food truck turns out to be a huge hit partly due to Percy, his witty son who decides to document his dads’ new business venture and promote it via social media while on their trip together.  From this simple food truck idea stems the surprising twist, which ties the movies beginning and end together.

MY REVIEW:

This movies undertone is about food bringing people together, an expression of love, life, creativity and following your dreams. Social Media was one of the focal points in this movie, oddly bringing Carl, his son and ex-wife Inez closer together. Jon Favreau as Carl Carter plays the role of the head Chef perfectly; he showed a real thirst for perfection, invention and creativity. I really enjoyed seeing his passion for food spilling onto the plates of the very many dishes he cooked throughout the movie (even the cheese sandwich scene, which is what I have since cooked up for my sons). The main drama that sparked his departure from the restaurant at the time was executed so well. I really enjoyed watching the relationships in this movie transform into substantial ones. Inez and Carls relationship had been mainly about Percy, however as the movie unfolds you can see the friendship and the spark flaring up again. Being a mum I particularly favoured the relationship that built between Carl and his son Percy, this relationship I would say was mediocre at first mainly from Carl, however this gradually developed into something fruitful throughout the movie. The step up Carl took from being just a man who had a child to actually recognising his fatherly role was a great thing to watch. Carl started to see snippets of himself in his son, and also started to realise the potential and the passion his son has.

This movie had a good balance of comedy and drama, mixed with fabulous music and fun. There are some really good characters in the movie which really make the movie likeable and appealing to a broader audience. The under use of Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr characters in this movie was a great way to draw people in but not over shadow the other actors and their characters. John Favreaus’ idea behind this movie was not to make a big budget movie but to make a back to basics movie.

It’s a movie worth watching. Enjoy!

Regards, S