You don’t really have to be a cook yourself to like Jon
Favreau’s tasteful slice-of-life drama CHEF, but if you are a life-lover you
hardly can stop yourself from falling in love with it. Alike every nicely-cooked
& well-presented dish in any of your favorite restaurant, life requires
nothing but a demanding preparation, monumental effort and a good heart to top
it all. CHEF takes its inspiration from the very same idea and turns out to be
a deliciously sweat, simple and delightful film that has its heart right in the
place.
Coming from the director of highly technological,
imaginative and illusory IRON MAN & IRON MAN 2, comedy-drama CHEF emerges
as a surprising but an appetite-full creation of Jon Favreau. Besides being the
writer-director, he plays Carl Casper- a passionate chef trapped in a commercial
restaurant run by the money-driven, dominating and unreasonable Riva, played by
Dustin Hoffman. Life takes a drastic turn when Carl gets bashed up from left,
right and center by a reputed food critic for not being innovative and
imaginative in his servings. This is the time when his personal life too is on
the edge. He should spare some of his life-chunks for his 10-year old son
living with his divorced wife and in the meantime, also be looking for what he
misses the most i.e. cooking what he likes to.
CHEF tempts you not only with the luscious, lip-smacking dishes
of all kinds being grilled, baked, chopped, basted, fried and served artistically
in the most enticing manner; in fact there is hardly any scene where the food
is not being celebrated; but also with the heartfelt emotions in a simple yet
relatable plot of human relationships. The sentiment of not being permitted to
experiment and innovate for what you think is right and often surrendering
yourself in the name of what your employer thinks is right, is never an extraterrestrial
for any man of creative values. Chasing your dreams and following your heart
may not be possible for everyone but when you see Carl getting on to it, you
never feel isolated from the sense of achievement and contentment Carl is
gaining gradually on screen.
Film also succeeds in throwing pleasant surprises on
regular intervals with the most delectable short & sweet star appearances
in recent. Scarlett Johansson woos the screen as Carl’s colleague at the café.
Dustin Hoffman as a bossy owner is a luxury to have on board but leaves you unfulfilled
wanting more of him. Robert Downey Jr plays a romantically witty more like his
Tony Stark in IRON MAN. Russell Peters joins the cast as a selfie-lover cop who
can’t stop asking for clicks to upload on social networking sites. Emjay
Anthony as his son and Sofia Vergara as his ex-wife come up with endearing performances
but CHEF is all about Jon Favreau. As the writer-director, he not only pushes
his boundaries but also blesses the screen with a wonderful character lovable
in all given situations.
Though in between courses you might notice something very
regular and recurring, at the end it is a sweet, simple and delicious feast you
won’t regret booking your table for! Likeability is guaranteed! [3.5/5]
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