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| Ralph Fiennes |
THE MENU (2022). Director: Mark Mylod.
Obsessive foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult of
Dark Phoenix) and his last-minute date Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) are one of several diners at the highly exclusive restaurant on Hawthorne Island. The other diners include a faded movie star (John Leguizamo) and his entourage, an older married couple (Judith Light and Reed Birney), a food critic and her sycophantic date and others. As the evening progresses things start getting weirder, as the head chef, Slowick (Ralph Fiennes), berates and even insults his customers. As the diners begin grumbling about their treatment, things take a decidedly dark turn when one of the assistant chefs, Jeremy (Adam Aalderks), abruptly commits suicide and no one aside from the shocked diners seems to care. The people who have simply come to have a fantastic meal soon realize that none of them may be getting off of the island alive.
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| Hoult and Taylor-Joy |
Taking its cue from those bitchy reality show celebrity chefs,
The Menu presents Fiennes as a bitter man who toils in a restaurant he does not actually own, and resents the stupid rich people he has to feed. With all the craziness in the world today, who knows if this kind of bizarre scenario could occur or not.
The Menu reminds me very much of
Knock at the Cabin in that it also has an absurd if irresistible premise, becomes increasingly strange and violent, and is more of an allegorical black comedy than anything you can take seriously.
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| Aalderks and Riennes |
Also like
Cabin,
Menu is very arresting and suspenseful, is extremely well-acted by the entire cast, beautifully-shot, and pretty much falls apart at the end. Again, it all depends on your tolerance for illogic and short story ideas stretched out to feature length.
The Menu would probably have worked better as an hour-long episode of a dark anthology series. The characters in the film are not really developed beyond types, and Margot, who has a few secrets of her own, is an odd choice for heroine. A special commendation goes to Hong Chau, who plays Elsa, the ice-cold woman who oversees the restaurant and is complicit in everything, along with the staff.
Verdict: Take-Out next time! **3/4.
I avoided seeing this when it came out because I thought it would be too dark and nihilistic. Then I was terribly bored and finally watched it and ended up liking it quite a bit. Very dark but well written comedy, and I loved the performances of all the actors, especially Fiennes.
ReplyDelete-Chris
Yes, another case of really good acting helping to put over, to some extent, a crazy premise.
ReplyDelete