A feel good crowd pleaser that maybe isn’t the most substantial meal you could eat (food puns, get it?) but will probably leave you feeling less bloated than other summer hamburgers (damn, I am killing it with the food puns).
What Works: The story is about a talented but creatively-restrained chef (Jon Favreau) who is tired of serving the same old food for his overbearing boss/restaurant-owner (Dustin Hoffman, playing a rare clueless character), and is excited to mix it up when he hears a big-time food blogger will be coming to his stuffy restaurant to review him. Unfortunately, his boss wants him to serve the same tired food…which gets panned, and then he wants him to keep serving it. The title chef quits (hooray!) and eventually gets a food truck to get back to basics. [You wonder if this is Favreau’s way of confronting the critics who called him a sell-out after Iron Man 2, and getting back to basics himself.]
There’s a certain amount of wish fulfillment in seeing shlubby Favreau—-in a rare act of Hollywood self-awareness, people keep telling his character how much weight he’s gained—-tell off a jerk boss, strive towards creative fulfillment, and have relationships with both Scarlett Johansson and Sofia Vergara. [Go Favreau! Not sure I really believe it, but good for you!] The food looks great, Vergara gives the most down-to-Earth performance we’ve ever seen from her (for once, more radiant than forced), and the aspirational appeal of watching someone see if they can really live up to their potential is impossible to resist.
What Doesn’t: Did I mention that Favreau getting with Johansson and Vergara might be a bit…hopeful? I’ve seen Godzilla destroy San Francisco this summer, and that was a little bit more believable. And the movie’s feel-good appeal doesn’t stay with you for long. Still, if the worst you can say about a movie is that it’s such a good time in theaters that you can’t remember it very well later on, well, how bad is that really?
What I Would Have Done Differently: Although it’s essentially an indie film, it sure is trying hard to have the look of a commercial movie. People forget that before the “Iron Man” movies, Favreau made the excellent indie breakthrough “Swingers” and “Made,” and this is a good step in that direction, but it’d be nice to see him strip it down and push it farther even more his next time out.