The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

Jack and I ate up this delicious story of a family from India opening a restaurant in the south of France across the street from a traditional establishment run by a difficult owner. Helen Mirren (last blogged in RED 2) is fun to watch in anything, even if she's playing a stodgy control freak. As the Indian patriarch, Om Puri (can't say I remember specific performances in any of his 256 credits but his face is familiar) brings heart to his character, as do Manish Dayal as his son the chef and the lovely Charlotte Le Bon as the French sous-chef with a winning smile and wonderful wardrobe of flirty dresses.

Director Lasse Hallström (profiled in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) leads with an even hand from a screenplay by Steven Knight (Oscar-nominated for Dirty Pretty Things (2002), with many nominations and wins for that script and for Eastern Promises (2007), both much meaner and grimier than this project), based on the novel by Richard C. Morais.

Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey lend star power to the band of nine producers and, no doubt, assisted in the securing of the spectacular locations, including Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val and a late sequence at Restaurant Le Georges in the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The magnificent photography of said locations courtesy of Linus Sandgren (Promised Land and American Hustle, among others).

The go-to composer of Indian soundtracks of the 21st century so far, A.R. Rahman (most recently scored Million Dollar Arm), provides native and other tunes for our enjoyment. I've been listening to clips from the movie's official website while writing.

Yesterday, while watching a scene in Land Ho! that takes place in an upscale restaurant, I suddenly wondered if I had remembered to put this movie on my list of food movies. No, I had not, because, for the first time in years, I had completely forgotten to blog about this one. The error is now corrected and the food movie list is updated.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are merely simmering with an average of 65% but their audiences are more bubbly at 85. We're with the audiences. Try it. You'll like it.