[Movie Review] Chef (2014}

Posted on May 16, 2014 by thegrandshuckett in Movie Reviews // 1 Comment

Official Website Plot Summary: A chef who loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family. Director: Jon Favreau Writer: Jon Favreau Runtime: 115 min Main Cast:

Jon Favreau as Carl Casper
Sofia Vergara as Inez
John Leguizamo as Martin
Scarlett Johansson as Molly
Oliver Platt as Ramsey Michel
Bobby Cannavale as Tony
Dustin Hoffman as Riva
Robert Downey Jr. as Marvin

Review: by Anthony and Lee

Who hasn't spent far too many hours watching the Food network or some other cooking competition? Well, take a large scoop of food porn, add two servings of Jon Favreau, as actor and director, and sprinkle in some big names to fill out the rest of the cast, and you will have the makings of a great movie.

What We Liked:

Based off of the trailer, we were a bit worried going into Chef that it would be corny and poorly acted, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that we were wrong.

Jon Favreau was fantastic in his role as Carl Casper. He really brought his character to life, and he was at such ease with cooking and preparing food that we actually believe that he has these magnificent cooking skills in real life. Favreau was completely charismatic, funny, and easy to root for all throughout the movie. We laughed at his jokes and were saddened at his tribulations and thrilled at his triumphs. We especially loved all of the scenes with Carl Casper spending time and bonding with his son.

We would never say Sophia Vergara can’t act; however, her show Modern Family is not a drama but a comedy, and we were concerned that we might discover the limits of her skills. Nevertheless, she has played her roles in Chef as well as Modern Family well and shown herself fantastic at staying in her lane.

Emjay Anthony as Carl’s son, Percy, was pretty solid. We enjoyed watching him teach his father both the pros and cons of using social media.

The final major contributor, acting-wise, was John Leguizamo. As the comic relief, he did a bang up job, and the scenes where he interacted with the father/son pair were some of the best.

There were plenty of smaller roles and cameos in Chef, filled by heavy hitters in the movie biz. Robert Downey Jr., Dustin Hoffman, and Scarlett Johansson drop in for these tertiary roles and do fantastic work.

The acting was way better than we thought it would be, but the plot of Chef was where it really shined. It portrayed a few very delicate relationships in a way that few movies ever do.

The relationships between a restaurant owner, a head chef, and the chef’s staff, for example, are incredibly importantly. The trust and respect they have for one another all should go toward a singular goal. The inescapable rift between these are what inevitably drives the movie forward

While handled often by several movies, the father/son relationship wasn’t portrayed in quite the same way by Chef. At first glance, it had many of the same elements, but, when we looked at the role the son played in advocating for his own relationship with his father, we began to see how it veered off of the beaten path. We really enjoyed the scenes between the two, whether they were about Carl teaching Percy about being a chef about life in general or about Percy teaching Carl about web savvy and being a father.

The music all throughout the movie was also great, especially the live band scenes. There was one particular scene where they went to a club in Miami to see a live band play, and it was so entertaining to see everyone dancing and having the times of their lives.

What We Didn’t Like:

We had to get pretty picky to find some small things that we didn’t like about the movie, but here they are. The implied relationship between Scarlett Johansson’s character, Molly, and Carl wasn’t really defined or necessary in hindsight, and the divorce of Carl and Inez was never explained aside from a throw away line about them growing apart.

4.5

Summary

Chef was a delightful feel good movie. Even with it’s R rating, probably for language, this was a fantastic film with a good story, delicious looking food, and wonderful music.

Images courtesy of IMDB