‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’ does what it is supposed to do. It targets the middle aged movie going crowd with beautiful exotic scenery, mature family based characters, and long lingering camera shots on food, both familiar and exotic. It’s a nice way to spend a Sunday matinee and get your life affirming warm fuzzies. Produced by Steven Speilberg and Oprah Winfrey, this film doesn’t exactly push the envelope, but it does paint a beautiful picture that’s comforting to watch.
The story follows the Kadam family as they are forced to leave their life in India. Eventually, they find their way to the South of France where they stumble across a small picturesque village which the family’s patriarch, Papa (Om Puri) decides to call home. The whole Kadam family are restauranteurs and they decide to open up an Indian restaurant across the street from the town’s celebrity French restaurant, a mere hundred feet away, which has a coveted Michelin star. The proprietress, Madam Mallory (played respectably French by Helen Mirren) is aghast that someone has dared set up shop next to her let alone immigrants who want to offer ethnic food to the finicky French townspeople. She is more indignant than anything else as she is convinced that the French know good food and Kadam’s restaurant will be short lived.
Papa has a secret weapon that even he doesn’t realize. His eldest son Hassan (Mannish Dayal) is a great cook, but even Papa doesn’t suspect how good. Hassan has mastered Indian cuisine , but starts to become enthralled with French culture and cuisine as he discovers a whole other world of food, ingredients, and spices. The artist within him starts to experiment with fusing the two cuisines and the results catches everyone’s attention, including Madame Mallory’s. Despite Madame Mallory’s misgivings, she convinces Papa to let her take Hassan under her wing to help develop him into a world class chef. She succeeds and suddenly the culinary world notices the Indian immigrant living in the small French Village. The village suddenly becomes too small to hold Hassan’s talent
Much of this film is paint by the numbers and predictable. Everything from the expansive landscapes, to the clichéd love interests, to the little guy fighting the odds, to the awesome food porn, this movie takes few chances, but that doesn’t mean it’s not thoroughly enjoyable. Sometimes comfort and beauty is a nice way to spend your movie dollar and from that stand point, this film delivers. You always know what’s coming, but when it happens you still smile and appreciate the journey. I would be hard pressed to remember a more picturesque film in recent memory and for those who day dream about running away to the south of France, this film is more than enough to satisfy. For foodies out there, it doesn’t favor one cuisine over the other rather it encourages all people to leave their culinary comfort zones and explore, which I particularly appreciated,
Not all films have to have gravitas or action or explosions. Sometimes, it’s just nice to take a long leisurely journey down a picturesque path. I recommend this film as mature escapist fantasy. A great date movie that will probably have you reexamining your vacation plans.
I give this film *** stars out of four
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