Movie Review: The Hundred-Foot Journey

I know I'm late to this party. The Hundred-Foot Journey was released back over the summer (2014) and was well received by both critics and audiences. However after watching Chef (which too was well received) I didn't think I was ready to watch another food movie. I thought Chef was incredibly overrated. In fact I'm convinced that anyone that liked that movie must have just been super hungry while watching it.

But I digress. The Hundred-Foot Journey is about a family that moves from India to France (my dream) and opens up an Indian restaurant right across the street from a traditional French restaurant that has a Michelin star. The movie has a few plot lines. You have the young chef honing his talents (meshing traditional Indian food with French). You have Helen Mirren's character who is learning to accept those who are different to her. And you have a community that learns to embrace change as well.

It's not a movie that transcends familiar movie tropes. There are two love interests that feel forced. There's also about 10-15 minutes of food scenes that could have been cut. I love both good french and indian cuisine but the overwhelming food porn can be a bit much.

Needless to say with everything going on in my life right now a family friendly PG movie was exactly what the doctor ordered. Not sure I would have enjoyed it near as much under normal circumstances, but for the time I thought it was a half-way decent movie. And one side benefit was that it made me look up nearby Indian restaurants that I can't wait to try.