THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY
Director: Lasse Halstrom
Cert: PG
Running time: 122 mins
An Indian family, headed by ‘Papa’ Kadam (Om Puri), sets up an Indian restaurant in a French village, right across the road from a Michelin-starred French restaurant, run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren).
While his son and head cook Hassan (Manish Dayal) bonds with the French restaurant’s sous-chef Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon) over the art of cooking, the new arrivals are met with opposition from the locals, including Madame Mallory.
While the two restaurants seem directly at odds at first, they both share a love of food, and the film shows how stubborn hearts can change. It also acknowledges that, while success can be a good thing, it’s surpassed by the simple things in life, such as food, home, and people.
Fusion in food
There’s a scene where Mallory and Papa argue the merits of subtlety and bombast in French and Indian cooking, respectively. But later, Hassan elevates his experimental French cooking with Indian spices, bringing the two approaches together in harmony to create something new and special. The film also explores similar character dynamics.
The film is sumptuously shot, especially the food. By allowing the audience to see and hear and savour every detail of the cooking, the film rekindles a fresh sense of appreciation – or even thankfulness – for the gift of food and the art of cookery.
The Hundred-Foot Journey, while cultured (and about the importance of both culture and the ability to cross it in order to connect with others), is not pretentious, and it’s basically a nice, gentle, feel-good film. There’s a warmth to it.
The film is ultimately about the power of food to bring people together, transcending things like race, culture, and personality. In this way, it could be seen to mirror the reconciling power of Jesus, the bread of life. (c.f. Galatians 3.28, John 6.35).
