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The Hundred-Foot Journey

2014, Comedy/Drama, 2h 2m

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Critics Consensus

Director Lasse Hallström does lovely work and Helen Mirren is always worth watching, but The Hundred-Foot Journey travels predictable ground already covered by countless feel-good dramedies. Read critic reviews

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The hundred-foot journey videos, the hundred-foot journey   photos.

Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) is an extraordinarily talented and largely self-taught culinary novice. When he and his family are displaced from their native India and settle in a quaint French village, they decide to open an Indian eatery. However, Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), the proprietress of an acclaimed restaurant just 100 feet away, strongly objects. War erupts between the two establishments, until Mallory recognizes Kadam's impressive epicurean gifts and takes him under her wing.

Rating: PG (Language|Brief Sensuality|Some Violence|Thematic Elements)

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Original Language: English

Director: Lasse Hallström

Producer: Steven Spielberg , Oprah Winfrey , Juliet Blake

Writer: Steven Knight

Release Date (Theaters): Aug 8, 2014  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Nov 22, 2015

Box Office (Gross USA): $54.2M

Runtime: 2h 2m

Distributor: Walt Disney

Production Co: Amblin Entertainment, Harpo Films

Sound Mix: Datasat, Dolby Digital

Cast & Crew

Helen Mirren

Madame Mallory

Manish Dayal

Hassan Kadam

Charlotte Le Bon

Farzana Dua Elahe

Dillon Mitra

Aria Pandya

Michel Blanc

Clément Sibony

Jean-Pierre

Vincent Elbaz

Juhi Chawla

Alban Aumard

Shuna Lemoine

Mayor's Wife

Antoine Blanquefort

Lasse Hallström

Steven Knight

Screenwriter

Steven Spielberg

Oprah Winfrey

Juliet Blake

Caroline Hewitt

Executive Producer

Carla Gardini

Jonathan King

Linus Sandgren

Cinematographer

Andrew Mondshein

Film Editing

David Gropman

Production Design

A.R. Rahman

Original Music

Pierre-Yves Gayraud

Costume Design

Karen Schulz Gropman

Supervising Art Direction

Alain Guffroy

Art Director

Sabine Delouvrier

Set Decoration

News & Interviews for The Hundred-Foot Journey

Parental Guidance: Still Alice , Plus Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on DVD

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Video: Dame Helen Mirren Wants You to Get Some

Critic Reviews for The Hundred-Foot Journey

Audience reviews for the hundred-foot journey.

It's apparently become a running joke now that I end up writing reviews later and later, as it's now 9:24 pm Of course, I also haven't had dinner yet, so it rules to be me, I guess. Anyway, I think it should be known, for the record, that I am an awful cook. Or at least I think I am, since I'm the only one who has eaten my cooking thus far. Sometimes there are moments when I look at a particularly skilled chef working their magic and I think to myself that I wish I could do that. I suppose you might say that I could take classes but, realistically speaking, one is born with that. Might sound like a cliched thing to say, but I feel that it's true in this case. Also, and this might sound ignorant, but I find food criticism to be a bit snobbish. I'm not saying that food critics' opinions are invalid, but it's just a profession that I do not understand. Obviously, there's a stereotype associated with a food critic that might not always reflect the reality, but, as a whole, I don't know what the point is of reviewing food. I suppose you could make the argument that it serves to promote great meals and restaurants, but what's great to one person might be shit to me. The difference between food criticism and, say, film criticism is that, at the very least, you can come to learn to trust someone's opinion on a movie. Maybe your tastes align or whatever, so you can seek them out knowing that the reviewers' thoughts might match your own. You don't necessarily have that in food criticism because, again, it involves literal taste. It's so much easier to enjoy a movie that a critic you followed enjoy than it is to enjoy a meal that a food critic you follow loves. I don't know how to explain this, but it makes perfect sense in my mind. So fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that, in part, this film deals with Madam Mallory's restaurant's search for their second Michelin Star. This Michelin Star thing is a bit of a guide book that tells you which restaurants you should visit based on their star rating. There are three stars, one is very good, two is phenomenal and three, well, you are basically one of the greats. Mallory has been eagerly anticipating their second star year after year for 30 years at the time of the film's events. This is where Hassan, his father and the rest of his family come in. They open a restaurant across the street from Mallory's restaurant, hence the title, after leaving India (losing everything they had in a fire, including the matriarch) to start anew in Europe. Their car breaks down in this village and Hassan's father comes across the property that is being sold. Of course, he buys it and they start their own restaurant. A lot of the movie is the obvious culture clash, where the stuffier and uptight Mallory has to deal with the more lively, (sometimes) louder and spicier Indians living 100-feet from her. Naturally, they also feud. Mallory takes a look at her competition's menu and proceeds to buy all the ingredients at the local market just to fuck with them. It's all the typical stuff you would expect. Hassan falls for Marguerite, who works for Mallory's restaurant as a sous chef, I think. Of course, though, not everything is so pleasant. Hassan's arrival with his family ruffles some feathers among the racists in Mallory's kitchen, who proceed (with a group of friends of his) to torch Hassan's family's restaurant. Here's the thing, I get why they did it, but it felt so forced and heavy-handed. For how pleasant the rest of the movie is, this racism shit just didn't really fit in with the rest of the movie. I suppose it was necessary in that this is what brings Mallory close to Hassan and his family. It's what ends their rivalry and allows Mallory to see Hassan as a potential chef for her restaurant instead of her competition. But, to be completely honest, this could have been done in an entirely different way. Racism is still alive and well (and this was a movie released in 2014), but I do not like the way how the movie handled it here. Again, it just doesn't fit thematically with the rest of the movie. Mallory, eventually, hires Hassan to work for her at her restaurant, which puts him at odds with Marguerite since, essentially, they're both 'fighting' for the same position as top chef. Eventually, though, Hassan's excellent cooking gets Mallory's restaurant the second star she's waited for for three decades. This, apparently, is a really big deal as Hassan becomes an overnight sensation. He's getting offers from major restaurants and he proceeds to take one of them. Of course, working in a major restaurant lacks the passion and the love for him that cooking for a 'smaller' place brought to him. Here's the thing, and I don't know if this is an actual thing, but I find this idea of Hassan becoming a celebrity because of his Michelin stars to be a little exaggerated. I mean, I'm certain that there's some fame associated with that, but it's also fame that's known to a very niche group of people. I don't think most people would really care one way or the other honestly. So this idea that Hassan is now a major celebrity because of this was difficult for me to buy. Name me a famous chef that's not Wolfgang Puck and Emeril. Go on, I'll wait. That's not to diminish the work of chefs who have managed to earn these stars, but I don't think one becomes a major celebrity ala, I don't know, Sandra Bullock because of that. Maybe it's just me. But, of course, all of this is set-up so Hassan eventually gets tired of working in a restaurant that has drained his passion and creativity to return to a smaller place where he can feel passionate about what he loves once more. It's basic, simple stuff. I'll be honest, though, I definitely enjoyed this movie. I wasn't a fan of the racist stuff, not because it shouldn't have been done, but just how it felt in contrast to everything else. Hassan's fame was also difficult for me to buy, but this was still an enjoyable enough movie. Helen Mirren is great, as always. And the rest of the cast is really solid all around. The storytelling is definitely predictable, but, again, I think the movie's tone and pacing definitely helped out a lot. The characters are likable and you want to see them do well or well enough given their circumstances. It's not a perfect movie, by any means, but I connected with its message about the importance of family, particularly with what's been going on personally. Again, to me, this is an enjoyable movie. Wouldn't give this a glowing recommendation, but if you come across this on cable TV then it's worth a watch.

I enjoyed this film about a competition between an expensive French restaurant and a bargain-brand Indian restaurant - 100 feet from each other.

Got to admit, got roped into this one. Wasn't one I would have chosen to watch. It is a good movie. The story about the Indian family moving to France and starting up a restaurant is good. Helen Mirren plays a horrible woman who works in a competing restaurant... But she comes nice by the end. There's also a bit of romance thrown in and some beautiful shots of the country, and of course, food. It did feel like an older persons movie, however. (And now I technically am an older person, it even seems too much that way for me). It's a nice movie, is what I mean. There is nothing in there that would offend or displease anyone, and thinking is optional too, although it does have its dramatic moments and a bit of tragedy too.

Not too spicy. Not too bland. Somewhat charming, but nothing special.

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the hundred-foot journey.

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“The Hundred-Foot Journey” is a film that demands that you take it seriously. With its feel-good themes of multicultural understanding, it is about Something Important. It even comes with the stamp of approval from titanic tastemakers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg , who both serve as producers. What more convincing could you possibly need?

There’s something familiar about the treacly and sanctimonious way this film is being packaged. It reeks of late-‘90s/early ‘00s Miramax fare: films with tasteful yet ubiquitous ad campaigns and unabashed Oscar aspirations which suggested that seeing them (and, more importantly, voting for them) would make you a better person. Films like “The Cider House Rules,” “Chocolat” and “The Shipping News.” Films by Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom.

Hallstrom just happens to be the director here, as well, and the similarities to “Chocolat” are inescapable. Stop me if think you’ve heard this one before: A family moves into a quaint but closed-minded French village and shakes things up with an enticing array of culinary delicacies. This new enterprise happens to sit across the street from a conservative and revered building that’s a town treasure. But the food in question isn’t a bon bon this time—rather, the movie is the bon bon itself.

But despite being handsomely crafted, well acted and even sufficiently enjoyable, “The Hundred-Foot Journey” is also conventional and predictable. And for a film that’s all about opening up your senses and sampling spicy, exotic tastes, this comic drama is entirely too safe and even a little bland.

What livens things up, though, is the interplay between Helen Mirren and Om Puri as battling restaurant owners operating across the street from each other—100 feet away from each other, to be exact, a short but fraught trip that various characters take for various reasons. Watching these veteran actors stoop to sabotage each other provides a consistent source of laughs. She’s all sharp angles, piercing looks and biting quips; he’s all round joviality, boisterous blasts and warmhearted optimism. The contrast between the British Oscar-winner and the Indian acting legend offers the only tension in this otherwise soft and gooey dish—that is, until the film goes all soft and gooey, too.

Mirren stars as Madame Mallory, owner of Le Saule Pleurer (The Weeping Willow), an elegant and expensive French restaurant that’s the winner of a prestigious Michelin star. But one star isn’t enough for the coldly driven Mme. Mallory—she wants another, and then another.

But her bloodless quest for gourmet grandeur is interrupted by the arrival across the street of an Indian family: the Kadams, who’ve been wandering around Europe ever since their beloved restaurant back home burned down during political rioting. When the brakes on their car malfunction on a treacherous stretch of spectacular countryside, Papa (Puri) insists it’s a sign from his late wife and decides to open a new eatery in the charming town at the bottom of the hill.

Never mind that one of the most celebrated restaurants in all of France is sitting right across the street from the empty building he rents. Never mind that they are in an insular part of the country where the residents probably don’t even know what Indian cuisine is, much less like it, as his children point out. He has faith in his food—and in his son, Hassan ( Manish Dayal ), a brilliant, young chef.

Just as Papa and Mme. Mallory strike up a sparky rivalry, Hassan enjoys a flirtatious relationship with French sous chef Marguerite ( Charlotte Le Bon , who played an early model and muse in the recent “Yves Saint Laurent” biopic). The script from Steven Wright (who also wrote the far trickier “ Locke ” from earlier this year, as well as “ Dirty Pretty Things ” and “ Eastern Promises ”) is full of such tidy parallels, as well as trite and overly simplistic proclamations about how food inspires memories. Dayal and Le Bon do look lovely together, though, and share a light, enjoyable chemistry.

Then again, it all looks lovely—both the French and Indian dishes as well as the lush, rolling surroundings, which we see through all four seasons; the work of cinematographer Linus Sandgren , who recently shot “American Hustle.” This sweetly pleasing combination of ingredients would have been perfectly suitable if the film didn’t take a wild and needless detour in the third act. That’s when it becomes an even less interesting movie than it already was, in spite of its loftier aspirations.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film Credits

The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

122 minutes

Helen Mirren as Madam Mallory

Om Puri as Papa

Manish Dayal as Hassan Haji

Charlotte Le Bon as Marguerite

Amit Shah as Mansur

• Lasse Hallström
• Steven Knight
• Richard C. Morais

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The Hundred-Foot Journey

• The Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory's Michelin-starred eatery.
• The family of talented cook, Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal), has a life filled with both culinary delights and profound loss. Drifting through Europe after fleeing political violence in India that killed the family restaurant business and their mother, the Kadams arrive in France. Once there, a chance auto accident and the kindness of a young woman, Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), in the village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val inspires Papa Kadam (Om Puri) to set up a Indian restaurant there. Unfortunately, this puts the Kadams in direct competition with the snobbish Madame Mallory's acclaimed haute cuisine establishment across the street where Marguerite also works as a sous-chef. The resulting rivalry eventually escalates in personal intensity until it goes too far. In response, there is a bridging of sides initiated by Hassan, Marguerite, and Madame Mallory (Dame Helen Mirren), both professional and personal, that encourages an understanding that will change both sides forever. — Kenneth Chisholm ([email protected])
• The Kadam family after leaving India due to a fatal tragedy finally settle in a small town in southern France. They set up a traditional family run Indian restaurant just like they had always planned but opposite a competitive French restaurant. This initial rivalry creates unexpected twists for the better and for the worse in the lives of both the Kadam family and Madame Mallory (Dame Helen Mirren), the owner of the Michelin star restaurant a hundred feet away. — Viir khubchandani
• Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal), the oldest of five siblings, was taught how to cook, but more importantly truly taste and love food, by his mother. Their entire family works together in their open air eatery in Mumbai. In his role, Hassan considers himself a cook and not a chef as he was never professionally trained. Following the tragic death of Hassan's mother, his well-off but frugal Papa Kadam (Om Puri) decides to pack up the family and move to Europe to open a restaurant, the business to keep to his wife's memory in their love of South Asian cuisine. After an initial business misstep in London, Papa believes it is fate that their van breaks down just outside of the French town of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, that they meet a local foodie, a young woman named Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), who introduces them to the abundance of fresh locally sourced produce, seafood and meats, and that there is an abandoned restaurant property on the outskirts of town for sale. Against the wishes of the family, Papa decides to purchase the property for their business, even after learning that the previous owners could not make a go of it because it is a mere one hundred feet from Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin-starred restaurant where Marguerite works as a sous-chef, she trying to work her way up to chef-de-cuisine. Papa's resolve is strengthened as he believes their style of food is not only different than the French, but better in their bold flavors, something he wants to show the locals. Madame Mallory (Dame Helen Mirren), Le Saule Pleureur's proprietress, took over its running following the death of her husband. The restaurant is now her entire life, and she has waited close to thirty years for it to receive its second Michelin-star, so far without success. Madame Mallory does not take too kindly to her new neighbors, not only as potential competition, but in the Kadams', most specifically Papa's, brash and forward approach to life, unlike the refined French. An initial action by Madame Mallory to make sure Maison Mumbai, the Kadams' restaurant, doesn't succeed, leads to an all out war between her and Papa. But a potential bridge emerges between the two restaurants with the budding friendship and possible romance between Hassan and Marguerite. Beyond that friendship and romance, Hassan believes, to survive, they have to meld their bold flavors to local ingredients and techniques, he who wants to learn the art of French cooking from Marguerite. A singular action in that war results in what could be a fundamental shift between all the players at Le Saule Pleureur and Maison Mumbai. — Huggo
• Put young Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) in a kitchen, and he's bound to emerge with a dish that will dazzle. When Hassan's family is forced to move from their native India, his Papa (Om Puri) relocates to a peaceful hamlet in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France. Determined to give his new neighbors a little taste of home, Papa decides to open an Indian restaurant in the village, and names it "Maison Mumbai". Meanwhile, across the street at the traditional French restaurant Le Saule Pleureu, uptight proprietor Madame Mallory (Dame Helen Mirren) doesn't exactly welcome the competition. When Madame Mallory ignites a bitter feud that quickly escalates, the only hope for a peaceful resolution lies in Hassan's talent for French haute cuisine, and his growing affections for Madame Mallory's pretty young sous chef Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon). Subsequently impressed by Hassan's undeniable culinary talents, Madame Mallory agrees to become Hassan's mentor, in the process providing the perfect creative environment where his unique fusion cuisine can thrive.
• In the opening scene, at a customs office, Hassan Kadam ( Manish Dayal ) explains to French Immigration why he and his family want to live in France: his family had owned a restaurant in Mumbai, but on an election night, there was a riot and their restaurant was set on fire, killing his mother who was the chef. He learned everything about cooking from her and has been trying to teach himself as his Papa moves the family about Europe. He fondly remembers buying sea urchins, the seller exclaiming that he gets cooking. Admitting he doesn't have any proof that he knows how to cook, except to offer a homemade samosa and saying that English produce isnt good enough, the Kadam family is allowed in. Papa ( Om Puri ) is driving the family throughout the French countryside, trying out random vegetable gardens, when their old van finally gives out in the hills above Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, a small village. A young woman passes by, offering to take them to the local mechanic. The family (also brothers Mansur and Mukthar and sisters Mahira and Aisha) push the van into town. Marguerite ( Charlotte Le Bon ), the woman, brings them to her apartment and offers a snack- a huge platter of radishes, butter and salt; home baked bread; large, fresh tomatoes; olives she picked and cured herself and little pastries. Delighted, Papa eagerly looks forward to bargaining with the hotel in town, much to Mansurs dismay. In the morning, Papa discovers an abandoned restaurant. As he and Hassan are exploring, Madame Mallory ( Helen Mirren ) announces they are trespassing. She admits she is not the owner either, but keeping an eye on the property for the owner who is in Paris. Again, Papa wants to bargain with the owner and soon we see the family cleaning up the restaurant to turn it into Maison Mumbai. The family finds out the reason why Madame is so hostile- she owns the restaurant just across the street: Le Saule Pleureur, a one star Michelin restaurant. Hassan finds mildewed French cookbooks in the kitchen as they prepare for the opening and strikes up a friendship with Marguerite, who he discovers is the sous chef at Madame's. Madame runs a tight ship, scolding employees for serving limp asparagus, saying food should be passionate. She visits her competition, demanding they turn down their Indian music and studies a menu which she takes with her. On opening day, Papa and Hassan travel to market only to discover Madame has snatched up all the crawfish, mushrooms and everything else in town on their opening night menu. Scrambling to save the day, the family forages the river and forest for the needed ingredients and manages to snag customers with native costumes, Mahira's smile and forceful behavior. Madame appeals to the mayor to close Maison Mumbai for various citations, but he appreciates the food too much. Papa turns the tables on Madame and purchases all the ingredients in town for pigeon truffle, one of the restaurant's renowned dishes. Marguerite tells Hassan that Madame doesn't interview job applicants, but asks them to prepare an omelet, knowing from one bite whether or not they have it. Hassan cooks a dish of pigeon with truffle sauce, (the recipe stolen with a bribe from Papa from one of the cooks), which he presents to Madame, and she then dumps in the trash. This is now war (cue the angry chopping). Madame tells her head chef, Jean-Pierre that he is a soldier, which he takes too seriously and has friends torch Maison Mumbai. Horrified, she personally scrubs their wall free of graffiti, fires Jean-Pierre and accepts when Hassan asks to make her an omelet, although he has to direct her since he severely burned his hands in the attack. His omelet includes Indian spices, onions, cilantro and spicy peppers. She raves after one bite and humbly admits that chefs must study for years for what he instinctively knows and admits that his pigeon was wonderful too. After a brief haggle with Papa over salary, Hassan moves across the street (one hundred feet), leaving behind his disappointed younger sister and hesitant older brother (who now has to cook) to polish off his cooking skills with Madame and Marguerite. At the end of one year, Hassan and Le Saule Pleureur have received the much coveted second Michelin star and Marguerite's controlled anger for she has been working for years to be head chef and also because Hassan will now be courted by many Parisian restaurants. The widowed Madame has clearly warmed to the Kadam family, calling Mahira a beauty, cooing to the younger children and feeding Papa a truffle. Another year later and Hassan is burnt out. He is much applauded, but he has taken up drinking (wine is considered strange in Indian culture). One night before Michelin stars are announced, he scolds a sous chef for ruining a sea urchin dish and finds a fellow Indian co-worker enjoying food sent from home. Soon he is taking a train back to Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, where he tells Marguerite that he has a business proposition for her. Secretly cooking sea urchin for Bastille Day, they consummate their relationship before Madame (who is now Papa's "almost" girlfriend) introduces them as the new partners of her restaurant to her guests and the Kadam family, who didn't even know that Hassan was back in town. When Hassan's phone rings, Papa sees that the call was from Michelin and implores him to call them back, but Hassan insists that he and Marguerite will get a third star next year at Le Saule Pleureur.

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• REVIEW: Does <I>The Hundred-Foot Journey</i> Deserve One Michelin Star or Two?

REVIEW: Does The Hundred-Foot Journey Deserve One Michelin Star or Two?

W ith Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey serving as producers, and a story that forges warm feelings between two generations of restaurant rivals, The Hundred-Foot Journey is on a mission to make you cry. Whether you oblige will depend on your fondness for, or immunity to, the gentler stereotypes of movie romance.

But there’s one shot that should bring tears of joy to anyone who thinks of food as something more than the stuff grabbed from a plastic bag and automatically consumed on a couch during a reality show. Early in the proceedings we are shown a plate of fresh vegetables, tomatoes mostly, that a pretty young French woman offers to weary Indian travelers. Artfully arranged and glowingly photographed, the comestibles would send moviegoers rushing avidly from the auditorium to the lobby — if the concession stand were a neighborhood stall run by Edesia, the goddess of banquets .

(SEE: TIME’s flavorfully illustrated list of the Top 8 Food Movies )

The food, traditional French cuisine or the livelier Indian masala, looks delicious: what Los Angeles Times writer Jenn Harris, in an interview with Indian-American chef Floyd Cardoz, calls a “ sumptuous buffet of gastro-porn .” Although Harris was referring to the preparations by Cardoz and other cooks of the film’s incredible edibles, Spielberg and Winfrey wouldn’t mind if viewers applied the phrase to the whole movie. They want you to swallow, in one savory sitting, their tale of colliding cultures reaching an entente cordiale. That particular buffet demands a more generous palate.

Winfrey chose Richard C. Morais’ novel for her 2010 reading list and teamed with Spielberg, who had directed her in The Color Purple nearly three decades ago, to bring the story to the screen. As director they hired Lasse Hallstrom, who specializes in upmarket sentiment and in films with food-related titles: What’s Eating Gilbert Grape , The Cider House Rules , Salmon Fishing in the Yemen . His signature food movie was Chocolat , a highly caloric confection about an outsider (Juliet Binoche) who opens a pastry shop in a French village, horrifies the locals, outrages the mayor (Albert Molina) and eventually seduces all of them with her bewitching sweets. With Johnny Depp on hand as Binoche’s roguish ally, Chocolat became Hallstrom’s biggest box-office hit.

(READ: Richard Schickel’s review of Chocolat )

In The Hundred-Foot Journey , the outsiders are Papa (Bollywood stalwart Om Puri), his son Hassan (Manish Dayal) and their family of Mumbai restaurateurs, sent packing when their establishment is torched by fanatics and Papa’s wife (the great beauty Juhi Chawla) is incinerated in the fire. The French village they wind up in is the almost obscenely picturesque Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, in the Midi-Pyrénées, and the wavering mayor this time is Michel Blanc. The family’s most obstinate rival — Mme. Mallory, who owns the one-star restaurant 100 feet across the street from where Papa sets up his noisy Maison Mumbai — is played by Helen Mirren with her chin held high in defiance; Queen Elizabeth might think Mirren’s manner too imperious. And Hassan finds love and competition with Mme. Mallory’s sous-chef Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon).

The journey in the novel was essentially Hassan’s. A budding genius in creating dishes both Indian and French, he hopes to rise through the gastronomic ranks and become the most innovative chef at the hottest restaurant in Paris. He is a human version of Remy the rodent in Pixar’s Ratatouille , conquering French-foodie snobbishness with his culinary inspirations. Screenwriter Steven Knight, who has scripted modern crime movies ( Eastern Promises ) and stately period pieces ( Amazing Grace ), as well as directing the Tom-Hardy-in-a-car movie Locke , makes room for the Hassan story, but promotes age — the slow-boiling friendship of Papa and Madame — over youth and beauty.

(READ: Corliss on Tom Hardy, trapped in a car, in Steven Knight’s Locke )

Mme. Mallory’s interest in Hassan, once he convinces her of his expertise, is a matter of pride. For 30 years, her restaurant, Le Saule Pleureur (The Weeping Willow), has carried an honored but equivocal one star, out of a possible three, from the Michelin guide to French cuisine. She wants that second star and thinks the gifted Hassan can help her get it. (It happens that, a couple hundred miles to the east, in Monteux, there is an actual establishment by that name. An online reviewer wrote, “This restaurant has one Michelin star and easily deserves another.”)

As Madame, Dame Helen anglicizes aspects of two revered French actresses who might have been more suitable for the role: imagine a frosty Isabelle Huppert who thaws into Catherine Deneuve. Because this is a movie aimed at Americans, Mirren must speak English in a stern, borderline-ludicrous French accent — both to Papa and Hassan, who confer with each other in Marathi and speak perfect English but perhaps not French, and to her French kitchen staff. “In English,” she says to her balky chef Jean-Pierre (Clément Sibony), “so we can all understand.” This time, the royal “we” that Mirren used in The Queen means the non-francophone audience.

(READ: How Helen Mirren reigned and triumphed in The Queen )

If the poetry of this Franco-Indian alliance gets lost in translation, the visuals sing ecstasy in any language. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren, fresh from making the actors in American Hustle look fabulously tatty, brings radiance not just to each morsel of food but also to the dewy closeups of Dayal (born in Orangeburg, S.C.) and Le Bon (from the recent bio-pic Yves Saint Laurent ) as the lovers-in-waiting. The movie revels in scenes of dappled soft-focus — you never saw so many dapples! — and punctuates the Spielberg-starry night sky with fireworks for every occasion. Though it must acknowledge Mama’s charred death, and a spate of anti-immigrant enmity (the scrawling of “French for the French” on a Maison Mumbai wall), the film is eager to seem good enough to eat.

The one moment of earned poignancy comes when Hassan goes across the street to work at Le Seule Pleureur, and Papa offers him his treasured box of Indian spices. “They have their own spices,” the young man says in the softest tones of renunciation. In a new land, the young must learn from their old-country past, use some parts and reject others, to become a success. That’s how you season the melting pot. At this moment, viewers may shrug off the glutinous manipulations of The Hundred-Foot Journey and give it a second star in the Michelin guide to comfort-food movies.

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The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

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Life's greatest journey begins with the first step.

A story centered around an Indian family who moves to France and opens a restaurant across the street from a Michelin-starred French restaurant.

Richard C. Morais

Lasse Hallström

Steven Knight

Top Billed Cast

Helen Mirren

Madam Mallory

Manish Dayal

Charlotte Le Bon

Rohan Chand

Young Hassan

Juhi Chawla Mehta

Farzana Dua Elahe

Dillon Mitra

Mukthar Kadam

Full Cast & Crew

• Discussions 1

A review by CinemaSerf

Written by cinemaserf on february 10, 2024.

Om Puri and his family are forced from their home in India by violence and briefly come to London before moving to a rural French community where he discovers a derelict old building situated opposite a Michelin-starred restaurant. Their first visit to the ruin is not auspicious. Their new neighbour "Mme. Mallory" (Dame Helen Mirren) is profoundly disapproving of what she clearly thinks will lower the tone, but he couldn't care less, buys the place and after a refurbishment is ready for opening night. Meantime, his talented and rather dashing son "Hassan" (Manish Dayal) plays a much more diplom... read the rest.

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Status Released

Original Language English

Budget $22,000,000.00

Revenue $89,500,000.00

• based on novel or book
• french cuisine
• indian cuisine

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