DIRECTOR: Jon Favreau LEAD CAST: Jon Favreau, Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, Scarlett
Johansson, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey, Jr. SCREENWRITER: Jon Favreau PRODUCER: Jon Favreau,
Karen Gilchrist, Sergei Bespalov EDITOR:
Robert Leighton Production Company: Aldamisa Entertainment GENRE: Comedy CINEMATOGRAPHER: Kramer Morgenthau DISTRIBUTOR:
Open Road Films LOCATION:
United States RUNNING TIME: 114 minutes
Technical assessment: 4; Moral
assessment: 3.5; MRCB rating: R13 CINEMA rating: V 14
Miami born chef Carl Casper’s
(Jon Favreau) creativity in the kitchen is squelched by his boss, Los Angeles
restaurant owner Riva (Dustin Hoffman), who threatens to fire Casper if he
serves anything other than the old favorites that the clientele come back for
again and again and again. This tug of war results in a scathing review by food
blogger-critic Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt) and then in a head-on collision
with Riva who stubbornly refuses to give Casper’s fresh cuisine a try, the chef
quits cold turkey—but not before he gives Michel a dressing down in Riva’s very
own restaurant. The drama surrounding Casper’s dogged refusal to compromise his
creative freedom and his public humiliation of the food critic go viral on
social media, making him a celebrity of sorts. Jobless and angry, Casper agrees to go with his ex-wife Inez
(Sofia Vergara), who invites him to take the opportunity to bond with their
young son Percy (Emjay Anthony).
Miami proves to be a surprising chapter in Casper’s life.
Favreau does a great job of
directing, writing, producing AND starring in this movie, no doubt a pet recipe
that’s spiced up by big names—Hoffman and good friends from Iron Man sequels Favreau has directed
Downy Jr. and Johansson. With the
made-to-measure cast, audiences will find it easy to empathize with the
characters. Action is tight and fast paced, complemented by lilting Cubano
music and mouthwatering footage of food tasting, shopping, preparation, and
presentation. As the closing
credits roll, Favreau is shown being mentored by chef Roy Choi on how to make
the perfect grilled cheese sandwich, brown and crisp and with layer upon layer
of different cheeses peeping out between the bread slices. Yummy!
Chef is billed as a comedy—but
was it really made to make people laugh?
More like a cooking dramedy movie, it’s a lighthearted treatment of
serious subjects—passion in one’s lifework, social media ethics, the many
faceted relationships in and branching out of the family. With female actors as sultry as Sofia
Vergara (a hybrid between Sofia Loren and Eva Mendez) and Scarlet Johansson
(voted 2014 Sexiest Woman in the World) we half expected some steamy scenes
inserted into the movie but to our delight none came. In that department it is actually wholesome; the foul
language issues from the mouth of irate male characters. Social media is shown as an implement
that can both destroy and build, given this age’s predilection for scandal and
sensationalism. As an
afterthought, though, we wonder whether Chef
used Twitter or Twitter used Chef. The story developed with Twitter as its
compass. If it had been set in a
pre-internet era, would the satisfying conclusion come that quickly?
