The Hundred-Foot Journey - 3 smiles

“The Hundred-Foot Journey,” directed by Lasse Hallstrom and based on a novel by Richard C. Morais, is a family-friendly movie, focusing more on characters and emotions than on plot. Only toward the end, when the scene shifts to Paris does the movie stumble a bit. Om Puri plays the patriarch of the Kadam family, who have left India and come to France to open a restaurant. He is accompanied by his three adult children: Mukthar (Dillon Mitra), Mahira (Farzana Dua Elahe) and would-be chef Hassan (Manish Dayal), who has great talent in the kitchen. Papa decides that the best place to start this new life is in an abandoned building near the outskirts of a town in the south of France, Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val. To him, it seems to be a great place to open ‘Maison Mumbai,’ but there’s a problem: across the street is a highly respected restaurant of Le Saule Pleureur. The proprietress of this classical French establishment, Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), is not keen on competition. Not dissuaded, Papa presses on. Meanwhile, Hassan forms a quasi-romantic friendship with Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), one of Madame Mallory’s sous chefs. Soon, the two rival establishments are engages in an all-out culinary war.

Although you expect it to happen, part of the pleasure of this movie is watching Mirren’s snooty Madame Mallory thaw and grow into a warm person with a fondness for Hassan. And Manish Dayal, the handsome American-born actor who plays the gifted and curious Hassan, is a charmer.  Montages of exquisite dishes being prepared exquisitely – pigeon with truffles, tandoori chicken – will warm a foodie’s heart. Hallstrom touches on the ugly strain of racism in certain sectors of French society, but not enough to turn feel-good into feel-bad. With “The Hundred-Foot Journey,” everything goes down rather well although I can’t help but wish for a little more. 8/10/14