“Chef” Takes to the Streets

A review by Lotta Budduh, IGTD film critic.

The movie, Chef, is delicious. It’s visually beautiful and exciting in multiple ways, from the food to the travel destinations to Sofia Vergara (she’s even more attractive on the big screen, darn her). Chef is the story of, well, most foodies, chefs, chef wanna-be’s, critics, people who want to follow a dream, parents, kids of divorce, adventurers and people with major self-doubt.

Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) was a chef phenom, garnering praise for his daring cuisine. He took a job at an elegant but dull restaurant cooking the same things for years. The restaurant was successful but it was all boring. When a noted restaurant critic plans to pay them a visit (Oliver Platt), Casper decides to get creative with the menu to show the critic what he’s still capable of. Restaurant owner Dustin Hoffman puts a lid on any creativity, fearing the break from what has served him well in the past. He tells Casper, “If you bought a ticket to see The Stones and they didn’t play “Satisfaction” wouldn’t you be disappointed? Play to your strengths.”

It’s a good argument Casper goes for until it all goes horribly wrong. Eventually, down and out with nowhere to go but into a food truck, Casper begins making wonderful, ethnic street food, taking to the streets on a road trip from Florida back home to California. The trip is filled with fun, great food, fond memories between friends and father and son and lots and lots of social media. Oh, and more star appearances than you can shake a mascara wand at, including Scarlett Johansson, Amy Sedaris, John Leguizamo, Robert Downey, Jr., Dustin Hoffman and Bobby Cannavale besides those already mentioned.

Twitter is practically a character in this movie and had to have played some major, financial role in it. If not, they’re certainly going to benefit from it now. The way they handle the world of social media and the sending off of Tweets is very clever. I won’t spoil that for you. But you’re gonna want to Tweet about it.

Jon Favreau wrote, directed, co-produced and starred in the movie so basically he’s all over it. He did a fine job touching on a wide variety of life issues, tying them together cohesively avoiding the scattered “just focus on something” end result some movies have. There are a few elements of the storyline that are dropped like a hot potato, such as his restaurant-owner boss Dustin Hoffman’s final realizations about the mistakes he has made on behalf of Favrau’s character and his own restaurant’s future. We never really know what Favreau’s ex-wife (Vergara) does for a living but ought to because it must be good, having something to do with parties, judging by her lifestyle. How, exactly he gets the money necessary to start up his own business is a little unclear, having something to do with Robert Downey Jr.’s character.

It takes nearly half the movie to get to the food truck part but I wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of the previous parts because they were well done and a feast for the eyes and emotions. Still, it could have used a bit of tightening up in the editing room. And the ending, although touching, is tied up with way too tidy of a shiny bow. It’s alright. I forgive it.

What’s good about the movie is a lot – dialogue is believable, the food scenes are gorgeous and Casper’s angst feels as real and palpable as his joy. And the conversations with his 10-year-old son (Emjay Anthony) about the beauty of food make you feel like you’re in the congregation of the Church of Good Eating. Amen to that! Chef opens May 23.

What’s it REALLY like to run a food truck? We talked to two of Denver’s popular food truck chefs. It’s a real, personal and accurate view of what life on the road, making and selling food is all about.

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