the hundred foot journey pg rating

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The Hundred-Foot Journey Parent Guide

While children and young teens likely won't have a taste for this script, the charming storyline, strong performances and dash of humor make "the hundred-foot journey" well worth the trip..

The Kadam family settles in Southern France with designs on opening an Indian restaurant. Unfortunately their neighbor Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), who runs a classical French establishment, doesn't want the waft of curry scaring away her customers -- or worse yet, enticing them to taste a little cultural diversity.

Release date August 8, 2014

Run Time: 123 minutes

Official Movie Site

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kerry bennett.

If watching Julie & Julia made you hungry, then The Hundred-Foot Journey will have you salivating. The beautiful cinematography in this culinary drama makes breaking eggs look like a work of art.

For Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), the gelid owner of a celebrated restaurant in the south of France, food is art. Her classically trained staff serves some of the finest food in the country. Even the French president dines in her Michelin-starred establishment. So you can understand her disdain when Indian immigrants take up residence in an abandoned cafe directly across the street and precede to open their own eatery. The lights, music and smell of curry are enough to make Madame Mallory confront the town’s mayor (Michel Blanc) with demands to invoke obscure city bylaws.

But changing people’s eating habits isn’t easy. Luckily, Papa’s son Hassan (Manish Dayal) is a gifted cook who learned all about food preparation from his mother. Mixing exotic spices with fresh produce and meats, he creates colorful and tantalizing dishes. Yet enticing patrons to try the Indian cuisine takes some tactical efforts on the part of Papa and his other children (Amit Shah, Farzana Dua Elahe, Dillon Mitra and Aria Pandya)—especially when Madame Mallory declares war on her neighbors.

While food takes a starring role in this film, the real story focuses on facing prejudice. When Madame Mallory finally allows herself to taste one of Hassan’s creations, she instantly recognizes his talent. Luring him across the street and into her kitchen isn’t as altruistic as it appears; instead it is the first step in breaking down barriers between the battling restaurateurs.

The film, which includes a handful of mild profanities, a couple of sensual moments and some social drinking, also depicts the importance of family. The Kadams face an uncertain future. As a group, they don’t always agree on things. And the children are often embarrassed by their father’s approach to getting the best price for something. But still they stick together.

Understanding French will add to what you get out of this film. But don’t worry if you don’t speak the language. The majority of the script is in English. And while children and young teens likely won’t have a taste for this script, the charming storyline, strong performances and dash of humor make The Hundred-Foot Journey well worth the trip to a nearby theater.

About author

Kerry Bennett

The hundred-foot journey rating & content info.

Why is The Hundred-Foot Journey rated PG? The Hundred-Foot Journey is rated PG by the MPAA for thematic elements, some violence, language and brief sensuality.

Violence: A riot breaks out after an election. People storm an establishment and burn it to the ground killing at least one person. Vandals spray paint a fence and start a building on fire. A man’s hands are burned when his clothes start on fire. Characters argue verbally. A family faces danger when the brakes on their van go out while driving down a mountain road.

Sexual Content: A young couple kisses on a couple of occasions. They are seen coming out of a kitchen pantry looking disheveled.

Language: The script contains only a handful of mild American and British profanities.

Alcohol / Drug Use :Characters drink wine with dinner on several occasions. Alcohol is served in some other social settings. An unhappy man drinks alone at a bar, and on the job in another scene.

Page last updated July 17, 2017

The Hundred-Foot Journey Parents' Guide

While looking for a new home, Papa says home is where your family is. Do you agree? What do you think makes a place a home?

How do cultures clash in this movie? How do Papa’s children respond when he begins to barter with shop owners and others? How does Papa define frugal and cheap? In what other ways does the Kadam family’s culture stand out in their new community?

Why is the mayor hesitant to come down too hard on either side of the battle between the restaurateurs? How does the film depict the idea of “meeting in the middle”?

How does Hasan’s new job in Paris take him away from his culinary roots? How does that impact the way he feels about life? How is cooking a sensory experience?

This movie is based on the book The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais .

The most recent home video release of The Hundred-Foot Journey movie is December 2, 2014. Here are some details…

Related home video titles:.

Talented cooks are also features in the films No Reservations , Julie & Julia and Ratatouille .

Related news about The Hundred-Foot Journey

Aging on the Big Screen Sees Older Actors in the Spotlight

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Golden Globe Nominations for 2015

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The hundred-foot journey, common sense media reviewers.

Cultures clash in the kitchen in warm family drama.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Home is wherever your family is. The film also str

Hassan is briefly seduced by fame and fortune, but

An angry mob storms a restaurant and burns it to t

Two characters share a few kisses, and in one scen

Some characters use the British exclamation "blood

Repeated mentions of the Michelin guide to French

Adults often drink wine with meals. One character

Parents need to know that Lasse Hallstrom's The Hundred-Food Journey follows the journey of Hassan (Manish Dayal), a young and extremely talented chef, and his/his family's culture clash with rival restaurateur Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren). The many mouth-watering food scenes are often accompanied by wine,…

Positive Messages

Home is wherever your family is. The film also stresses the importance of accepting differences in other people, including cultures and cuisines. Love of family and cooking are prominent themes.

Positive Role Models

Hassan is briefly seduced by fame and fortune, but he eventually realizes that family is more important. A snobby woman learns that she should be more open to accepting people who have different customs.

Violence & Scariness

An angry mob storms a restaurant and burns it to the ground, leading to a sad death. Later, two men deface and try to burn down another building in the dead of night; a main character is injured as a result of the fire.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two characters share a few kisses, and in one scene, they emerge from a back room hastily putting their clothes back on, suggesting they've shared an intimate moment.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Some characters use the British exclamation "bloody"; also a mumbled use of "s--t," plus "hell" and "oh God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Repeated mentions of the Michelin guide to French dining and its famous star system for rating restaurants.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults often drink wine with meals. One character is later shown drinking frequently to suggest that he's slipping into depression.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Lasse Hallstrom 's The Hundred-Food Journey follows the journey of Hassan (Manish Dayal), a young and extremely talented chef, and his/his family's culture clash with rival restaurateur Madame Mallory ( Helen Mirren ). The many mouth-watering food scenes are often accompanied by wine, and there are some scenes in which one character starts to drink a bit more heavily (to suggest depression). Two brief moments feature some violence (including one in which men throw fire bombs) -- one of which causes a sad death. There are also a few romantic kisses and suggestions of intimacy and language along the lines of "bloody." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (5)
• Kids say (11)

Based on 5 parent reviews

Absolutely fantastic!

Excellent clean movie, what's the story.

After unrest drives them away from their native India to London, Hassan (Manish Dayal) and his family take to the road and find themselves stranded when their brakes fail in a small French town. Hassan's father decides it's just the spot to open an Indian restaurant. Directly across the street, Madame Mallory ( Helen Mirren ) runs another restaurant, one with a long, proud tradition of fine French dining -- and possessed of a famed Michelin star. She's not happy with her new neighbors and declares war on their rival eatery. Meanwhile, Hassan starts to fall for Marguerite, the sous chef in Mallory's kitchen, who teaches him the basics of French cuisine.

Is It Any Good?

Like beef bourguignon, one of the many dishes filmed so delectably in this production, THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY is a crowd-pleasing classic. The family story, told with empathy and love here, is its base; the food scenes that are odes to the art of cooking, framed through a cross-cultural prism, are its mea; and the gorgeous French countryside and melodic Indian music are its garnish. It's a delight to watch, especially because of the cast.

But, also just like beef bourguignon, it's not particularly inventive, even if the story centers around a young man's ingenuity in the kitchen. You know what you're getting. A true master chef -- as director Lasse Hallstrom has revealed himself to be in many previous turns at the helm -- would take a classic and turn it into something transcendent, adding elements that transform, rather than just substituting one ingredient (the location, perhaps) for another and hoping it feels different. Still, the film is big-hearted and filling enough -- so filling that it runs too long, actually -- to be a pleasant enough cinematic meal.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about bias. What does Madame Mallory think about Hassan and his family when she first meets them? Why? How do her opinions change?

Why are movies about food and cooking so appealing? How does this one compare to others you've seen?

Movie Details

• In theaters : August 8, 2014
• On DVD or streaming : December 2, 2014
• Cast : Helen Mirren , Charlotte Le Bon , Manish Dayal , Om Puri
• Director : Lasse Hallstrom
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Indian/South Asian actors
• Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Cooking and Baking
• Run time : 122 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : thematic elements, some violence, language and brief sensuality
• Last updated : June 2, 2023

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Movie Reviews

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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• Cast & crew
• User reviews

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 Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory's Michelin-starred eatery. The Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory's Michelin-starred eatery.

• Lasse Hallström
• Steven Knight
• Richard C. Morais
• Helen Mirren
• Manish Dayal
• 266 User reviews
• 185 Critic reviews
• 55 Metascore
• 2 wins & 4 nominations

• Madame Mallory

• Jean-Pierre

• Mayor's Wife

• Swedish Chef
• Baleine Grise Porter

• Hassan (7 years old)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Om Puri (Papa) was called "Papa" by the cast. He also moved out of the hotel they all stayed in so that he would have a place to cook for them.
• Goofs When Hassan is first making the 5 main French sauces, he is is mixing egg yolks in a bowl and adding oil and something that looks like mustard. He is making mayonnaise, not one of the sauces. Hollandaise, the one sauce out of the five made with yolks, is made in a bowl over steaming water and adding clarified butter.

Madame Mallory : What is this flavor that is fighting against the chicken ?

Hassan : I added some spices for flavor to the sauce, and coriander for garnish and freshness.

Madame Mallory : But why change a recipe that is 200 years old ?

Hassan : Because, madam, maybe 200 years is long enough.

• Connections Featured in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Helen Mirren/James Cameron/Spoon (2014)
• Soundtracks Afreen Music by A.R. Rahman Lyrics by Gulzar Performed by Nakash Aziz , A.R. Rahman and the KM Sufi Ensemble

User reviews 266

• Sep 2, 2020
• How long is The Hundred-Foot Journey? Powered by Alexa
• August 8, 2014 (United States)
• United States
• United Arab Emirates
• Hành Trình Trăm Bước
• Castelnau-de-Lévis, Tarn, France (Lumière, Restaurants)
• Amblin Entertainment
• Dreamworks Pictures
• Harpo Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $22,000,000 (estimated)
• $54,240,821
• $10,979,290
• Aug 10, 2014
• $89,514,502

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 2 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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The Hundred-Foot Journey | 2014 | PG | - 1.4.2

SEX/NUDITY 1 - In a kitchen a man and a woman kiss several times over a large pot of boiling water. ►  A woman is shown wearing a long slip in bed (her shoulders and arms are bare) and she puts on a knee-length robe to answer a pebble tossed at her window; she opens the door of the house and hugs the man outside. ►  A man attempts to kiss a woman and she says it's a bad idea, because they are rival chefs. A man kisses a woman's hand and she kisses his hand in return. A male cyclist runs off the road into a van, unhurt, when he stares at an attractive woman by the side of the road. A man and a woman talk and smile in several scenes. A man appears at a woman's door at night to say goodbye as he leaves for a new job and she becomes tearful. A man walks inside a building where lights and music come on and a woman asks him to dance and they do. A man sitting with a woman tells her that spending time with her is almost like having a girlfriend; she walks away and he thinks she is angry.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - During political change, shouting men with torches at night storm a family owned restaurant and burn it, as the screen fills with tall flames and falling debris; the family escapes except for the mother, whom we see wailing in silhouette on the other side of a thick wall of flames while her family on the other side cannot reach her and we hear that she died. Several men set fire to a restaurant where one of the chefs is engulfed by flames until his father rushes out and throws ice water on him and his brother uses a fire extinguisher (we see that the burned man has second-degree burns on his hands and red, raw, blistered skin is seen); we later see his hands heavily bandaged from fingers to elbows, looking like boxing gloves and later still, a woman squeezes his hands and he yelps in pain as she apologizes. ►  A woman becomes angry when a male friend joins her kitchen and she begins slamming knives onto stainless steel tables. A man is angered when a culinary magazine calls his son a "boy from the gutter" and that a photo of his son makes him look like a terrorist; he slams the magazine down, spilling coffee on it. A restaurant owner calls her staff together and repeats part of the French national anthem: "They came to slit the throats of our sons and daughters" and tells one of her staff that she knows that he had his friends set fire to another restaurant and tells him to take his knives and leave; we see him spit at the other restaurant as he walks away, but we cannot see the spittle. ►  People in a market jostle one another and a man trips and falls into the crowd, though we see no injury. Women argue loudly about buying sea urchin in a market. A man and his two sons argue several times about settling in a small French village and opening a traditional Indian restaurant. A man and a woman argue several times about the man's restaurant, their loud music and the inadvertently blocked road. A woman spitefully buys up all the stock at the market needed for a competing restaurant's opening menu and the next day, the wronged restaurant owner uses the same tactic against the woman, whereupon she attempts to have his restaurant closed down for loud music and other local violations, but fails. A man presents a meal for inspection to a restaurant owner and she rudely empties the plate into a garbage can. A man tells his adult and young children that they are at war with another restaurant. A man says that he hears that Indians bought cat food at a convenience store to serve in their restaurant. A man jokes with a woman that sometimes, small children are cooked in a Tandoori oven, then apologizes, as she looks horrified. A man rolls up some paper and uses it to trumpet a soft but rude noise at a woman. A man and a woman argue about the future of the man's son and where he takes chef's training. A female chef says Michelin restaurant guides are the Bible and the awarded stars are holy. ►  The wall in front of a restaurant is covered with a graffiti message for the occupants to get out and a woman stands in the rain with a large container of hard soap and a scrub brush, washing off the graffiti. ►  A man's son asks him if he is trying to kill the family with their malfunctioning van; the brakes go out and the vehicle careens down a short hill and up a dirt path, missing a tractor and some smoke is seen coming from under the van; the family pushes the large van into a small village. ►  A woman teaches her son that in cooking, they make ghosts and spirits to make people happy with memories. A man cries in a restaurant, because the food he tasted was perfectly made, bringing memories of his mother. A man becomes tearful when he looks into a case of spices that his mother once owned. A woman begins to cry over an omelet. After a woman dies, her husband talks to her spirit, asking advice on decisions. We hear that a woman is a widow and unhappy. A woman hears that the mushrooms she picked in a forest are poisonous (no one ingests them). ►  We see close-ups of plucked dead chickens hanging by their feet in a market. We see a wide array of seafood, some of it still living: crayfish move and we see lobsters, and small eels, dead fish, oysters in their shells on ice and other seafood in a market. In two kitchens, close-ups show chefs with wide knives chopping vegetables, heads from fish and parts of large crustaceans (we see a little blood from the fish); we also see raw chicken cooking. A young boy tastes raw, slimy-looking sea urchin meat from inside its shell of spikes and he later does so as an adult too. During a rainstorm, wind from a large low flying airplane causes a food stand to fall apart, dousing the hot food with cold water as the vendor growls in frustration. A little girl spits soup off screen into snow (we do not see it) saying, "Yuck! French food!"

LANGUAGE 2 - 4 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, insane, junk, stubborn, wrecking party, funeral, confounded French woman), stereotypical references to men, women, Asian Indians, The French, chefs, business owners, 7 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, My God, Oh God, Pray to God That It Works, Now The Gods Will Take Him, For God Sakes Let's Eat).

SUBSTANCE USE - A man mentions chicken vaccinations (we do not see any vaccinations occur). Chefs use wine (against their no-alcohol cooking traditions) to save fish that has been out of refrigeration a little too long and its ice has melted, a man sits beside a bottle and a glass of wine (we do not see him drink), a woman drinks from a glass of wine and we see the bottle at a picnic, a man and a woman drink wine at lunch, restaurants serve champagne and we see men and women drinking it from tall glasses at a celebration, a man and a woman struggle over a bottle of 30-year-old champagne and then pop the cork and drink it, a man stands on a chair and drinks a glass of champagne, many tables in a restaurant are filled with glasses of champagne and other wines and we see men and women drinking, and a man sits at a bar and drinks shots of clear liquor and a glass of wine.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Political violence, death, loss, starting over, restaurant work, competition, fame, bigotry, regret, memories, healing, acceptance, friendship, families, love.

MESSAGE - Good food brings memories and people together.

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated , Special , Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.

REVIEWS See ratings & reviews at Critics.com

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THE ASSIGNED NUMBERS Unlike the MPAA we do not assign one inscrutable rating based on age but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY , VIOLENCE/GORE & LANGUAGE on a scale of 0 to 10, from lowest to highest depending on quantity & context | more |

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The Hundred-Foot Journey Reviews

Mirren is drily funny, deploying an arsenal of MasterChef-style horrified reaction shots.

Full Review | Apr 7, 2023

How wrong can you go with a comedy about beautiful people making beautiful food in the south of France? And Helen Mirren? The woman can turn 105 and she'll still be alluring, even when she's being haughty. Lots of laughs.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 19, 2022

It's an enjoyable film about passion; the passion for food, passion for culture but most of all, passion for life.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 1, 2021

This isn't your usual summer fare, because it cares far too much about the people whose story it is telling and it takes the time to let you get to know them.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 11, 2020

If you're into simple, pleasant movies that offer two-hour escapist entertainment, this may be for you.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jul 20, 2020

[A] beautifully written story.

Full Review | Feb 5, 2020

Fulfilling, rich and delicious, The Hundred Foot Journey is an effervescent delight, sizzling with cinematic and emotional flavor.

Full Review | Dec 14, 2019

If films about the culinary arts revolved around the same strictures to obtain something like a Michelin star rating, The Hundred-Foot Journey would always and forever be a big fat zero.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Aug 30, 2019

For foodies and folks looking for the cinematic version of a poolside paperback, THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY delivers. If you're seeking something with a little artistic nutrition, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5 | Apr 8, 2019

Overall, The Hundred-Foot Journey is not a bad dish, but considering its rich ingredients, it still lacks a bit of spice.

Full Review | Feb 27, 2019

There's an in-built contradiction between the film's attempt to position itself as an ode to cultural understanding while also being a commercially twee depiction of that tale

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 25, 2019

As you might imagine, visually, it's a stunning film, and the story is endearing. Dayal and Le Bon are charming, and Helen Mirren, well, is Helen Mirren.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 11, 2018

"The Hundred-Foot Journey" is a delicious love story portraying the melting and blending of two opposing cultures.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 21, 2018

This underachieving cooking infomercial left me starving for a decent movie experience. Cancel your reservations to this rancid soufflé.

Full Review | Aug 21, 2018

Has a lot of pedigree behind it, but is sadly unable to transcend its habit of skimming through information and any form of drama whatsoever.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 13, 2018

If you don't leave the theatre wanting to visit France and eat Indian food, then you didn't enjoy it as much as I did. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 30, 2018

With its fine cast, glorious setting, and countless scenes of mouthwatering menus, The Hundred-Foot Journey is an appetizing alternative to summer's superheroes and zombies.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | Dec 3, 2017

If you can deal with the uneven narrative - and in this case there's no reason you shouldn't - there is a lot to like about this film.

Full Review | Nov 28, 2017

Reality-bites are fleeting here. This is a food fairytale which prefers the sweet to the tart, cream to the karelas of life. Yet, it takes all those tastes to create a great dish.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 14, 2017

It may play out predictably, and feature more fake fireworks than it should, but The Hundred-Foot Journey is charming, with enough heart and genuine laughs to forgive its formulaic nature.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 7, 2017

Screen Rant

'the hundred-foot journey' review, the hundred-foot journey is a by the numbers, yet charming, handsome, and well-acted dramedy that the whole family can enjoy..

The Hundred-Foot Journey  tells the story of Hassan Kadam, who at an early age discovers he has a nose for good food and a passion for cooking. Young Hassan (Manish Dayal) and his family experience personal tragedy as a result of political strife within India, forcing them to flee their home country. The Kadams (with a little push from fate) eventually wind up settling down in the French countryside, where their patriarch "Papa" (Om Puri) decides to buy a dilapidated piece of property and restart the family's restaurant business.

Problem is, across the road from the Kadams' new home (one hundred feet away, to be exact) is one of the more prestigious French restaurants in the country - a well-oiled machine run by the hard-working proprietress Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren). At first the two establishments go to war, but over time the ice begins to thaw between them - especially as Ms. Mallory comes to realize that Hassan's unusual appreciation for Indian and French cuisine means he possesses all the more potential to become a great chef.

Hundred-Foot Journey  is a film adaptation of the novel written by Richard C. Morais, which features powerhouses Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey serving as producers and Steven Knight ( Locke ) on screenwriting duties. The cultural clash drama/comedy setup touches upon issues concerning racial/class-based tensions and related problems in Europe, but unlike the gritty social realism drama/thrillers that Knight has written in the past (see:  Dirty Pretty Things ,  Eastern Promises , etc.)  Hundred-Foot Journey  adds a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down easier.

On the whole, Hundred-Foot Journey  tends to be quite predictable and lacking in subtly when it comes to presenting its themes; at the same time, though, it's cleanly-structured (thanks to Knight's neat and tidy compression of the source material) and, overall, the film works as charming and generally light-hearted entertainment that's appropriate for a family audience. Part of the credit for that also goes to director Lasse Hallström ( Chocolat , Salmon Fishing in the Yemen ), who delivers a mix of drama, comedy, and romance that is on the whole pleasant, well-paced, and perfectly handsome, visually-speaking.

Hallström and his director of photography Linus Sandgren ( American Hustle ) fill just about every frame of Hundred-Foot Journey with either a sunlight-bathed backdrop and/or a lovely snapshot of the locations in France where the movie was filmed; the film's use of old-fashioned editing transitions between scenes (ex. curtain wipes) only adds to the good feelings. The only problem is that such technical elements don't really bring out any deeper meaning in the story, so by the end, Hundred-Foot Journey feels closer to being a pretty postcard instead of a rich painting.

Helen Mirren is the most recognizable star in Hundred-Foot Journey (and thus, she's been featured heavily in the film's marketing), but in a refreshing twist the story is not just about Hassan - it's also very much told from his perspective. Manish Dayal brings a nice blend of wide-eyed innocence, determination, and vulnerability to the character with his performance, making Hassan's journey enjoyable to watch (even though you'll know ahead of time  exactly where it's headed).

Similarly, Charlotte Le Bon as Marguerite - an up and coming chef who works for M. Mallory and befriends Hassan early on - has an easy-going chemistry with Dayal and is given just enough meaty script material to allow the character to feel like more than a run of the mill romantic interest. The relationship between Mirren and Dayal's characters feels authentic and helps to drive the plot forward, but Le Bon and Dayal's spiritual connection is what forms the beating "heart" of Hundred-Foot Journey .

Mirren's storyline in Hundred-Foot Journey revolve largely around her evolving relationship with Om Puri as Hassan's father; the pair might even spend more screen time together with one another than with Dayal, for that matter. Either way, Mirren and Puri help to ground their characters and bring more humanity to two people who could've easily come off more as cultural stereotypes (the uptight French woman and outspoken Indian father, respectively). Again, many a filmgoer will be able to spot the final destination of their subplot well before it gets there, but the actors make the trip worth taking anyway.

That's Hundred-Foot Journey , is a nutshell: quite fluffy and conventional, yet perfectly easy to sit back and enjoy thanks to the solid direction, affable performances from the cast, and a rousing original score by Oscar-winner A.R. Rahman ( Slumdog Millionaire ). Which is to say,  The Hundred-Foot Journey is a by the numbers, yet charming, handsome, and well-acted dramedy that the whole family can enjoy. Those who are in the mood to watch a foodie movie that's easy on the eyes and offers just about something for everyone (well, excerpt for little kids, that is), might want to consider giving this one a look at some point.

The Hundred-Foot Journey is now playing in U.S. theaters. It is 122 minutes long and is Rated PG for thematic elements, some violence, language and brief sensuality.

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‘the hundred-foot journey’: film review.

Helen Mirren and Om Puri play rival restaurateurs in Disney's big-screen adaptation of a food-forward novel.

By Sheri Linden

Sheri Linden

Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic

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With its picture-postcard setting and mouthwatering Indian and French delicacies, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a movie designed to comfort. Stimulating taste buds and little else, Lasse Hallstrom ’s latest film picks up where his 2000 hit Chocolat left off, in terms of the affectionate shaming of provincial Gallic villagers. Starring Helen Mirren and  Om Puri as rival restaurateurs in the Midi-Pyrenees region of France, the film tracks a tension-free lesson in cultural exchange that culminates, predictably, in romance. Fans of the source best-seller and seekers of non-challenging counterprogramming to summer’s genre fare will savor the offering. But colorful locales and exotic spices can’t hide its essential blandness.

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The Bottom Line Chicken tikka masala for the soul. 

The comic drama follows a Mumbai family’s move to France, where a conveniently available run-down mansion/restaurant gives them the chance to resurrect the business they lost back home in devastating circumstances. Papa (Puri), a father of five and an unstoppable force who still communes with his deceased wife, soon butts heads with Mirren’s Madame Mallory, who runs the elegant eatery directly across the road. Hers is a bastion of classical French cuisine and the proud bearer of a Michelin star. Madame wants a second one. She’s so downright spiteful that the eventual melting of her heart is a given.

The thawing begins halfway through the movie, with an act of xenophobic violence against the Indian family that proves only a minor blip for the characters, even for Papa’s injured son Hassan ( Manish Dayal ). A gifted cook who’s fascinated with French culinary tradition, he falls for Marguerite ( Charlotte Le Bon ), Madame’s sous-chef, as they explore the bounty of the farmers’ market and the local terrain. Their story’s trajectory is as unsurprising as most everything else in the fairy-tale-tinged film, but Le Bon brings a nice touch of passive-aggressive competitiveness to her role when Hassan’s career takes off.

Screenwriter Steven Knight ’s adaptation of the foodie-friendly novel by Richard C. Morais resolves conflicts quickly and places morsels of platitude about the “flavors of life” in characters’ mouths. For anyone who didn’t see Ratatouille , there are helpful reminders that “food is memories.”

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But the main course is the dance between Madame Mallory and Papa, however transparent the clash between her carefully composed plates and his bold flavors. Whether they’re filing ridiculous complaints about each other with the unflappable mayor ( Michel Blanc ), arguing over the proper presentation of ingredients or sharing a cafe table, Mirren and Puri bring an effortless command to their roles. 

Production companies: Amblin Entertainment/Harpo Films Cast: Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon, Amit Shah, Farzana Dua Elahe, Dillon Mitra, Aria Pandya, Michel Blanc, Clement Sibony, Vincent Elbaz, Juhi Chawla, Alban Aumard, Shuna Lemoine, Antoine Blanquefort Director: Lasse Hallstrom Screenwriter: Steven Knight Producers: Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Juliet Blake Executive producers: Caroline Hewitt, Carla Gardini, Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King Director of photography: Linus Sandgren Production designer: David Gropman Costume designer: Pierre-Yves Gayraud Editor: Andrew Mondshein Composer: A.R. Rahman

Rated PG, 122 minutes

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The Hundred-Foot Journey is Worth the Trip

• Christian Hamaker Contributing Film and Culture Writer
• Updated Dec 05, 2014

DVD Release Date: December 2, 2014 Theatrical Release Date: August 8, 2014 Rating: PG for thematic elements, some violence, language and brief sensuality Genre: Drama Run Time: 122 min. Director: Lasse Hallstrom Cast: Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte le Bon, Amit Shah, Farzana Dua Elahe

Is summer 2014 big enough for another “foodie” movie?

A few weeks ago, Jon Favreau's Chef , a warm-hearted story about a father re-establishing his relationship with his son while reconnecting with his passion for food, turned into the sleeper hit of the summer. The filmmakers wisely leave potential romantic subplots mostly on the sidelines, focusing instead on the importance of doing what one loves and knows best. Viewers have responded to Chef , which though distributed by the small Open Road Films, has been a word-of-mouth hit, bringing in more than $28 million over 12 weeks.

Now the much larger Buena Vista—distributor of The Avengers , the Pirates of the Caribbean films and Pixar movies —has released its own movie about an acclaimed chef and the pursuit of one’s passion. But The Hundred Foot Journey also has two romantic subplots, a big-name star ( Helen Mirren ), an Oscar-nominated writer and director (for My Life as a Dog and The Cider House Rules , respectively), and the backing of producers Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey. It's the type of film that screams "prestige project" and seems shorn of any sharp edges or unexpected moments that might enliven a story that otherwise looks pat and predictable.

The title comes from the distance between Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Southern France, and Maison Mumbai, a new eatery started by an Indian family that has just moved to the town of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val. The French restaurant's proprietress, Madame Mallory (Mirren), isn’t the welcome-them-with-open-arms type, but rather a stern widow who devotes herself to maintaining her restaurant’s excellent reputation.

Mallory is determined to make life miserable for Indian patriarch Papa (Puri), but her biggest culinary threat is Papa’s talented chef son, Hassan. Papa's "this is war" strategy employed in response to Mallory's attempts to retain every competitive advantage against the newcomers doesn't sit right with Hassan, who instead makes kind overtures to Mallory and her staff.

His interest in her sous chef, Marguerite (le Bon), is more than strictly professional, but Marguerite sees Hassan as a competitor, not an ally.

We know where this is going. Mallory will feign resistance to Hassan's unimpeachable cooking before admitting his talent and asking him to join forces with her. Marguerite and Hassan will sort through their professional and romantic feelings. And maybe Papa and Mallory will find romance. The only suspense is whether or not Mallory's restaurant will earn a coveted second Michelin star thanks to Hassan's cooking—but even that isn’t too hard to predict, is it?

Less predictable is how charming the film is, not to mention how visually sumptuous. Cinematographer Sandgren is blessed not only with lovely locations, but with the ability to light his interior shots with the same evocative qualities he brings to exterior shots of the town at dawn, or of a ray of light breaking the darkness of a room. Yet the best imagery of all may be the food shots, which look even more gorgeous than the cast members.

The Hundred Foot Journey is predictable, but so well played that it's difficult not to like. The film is also relatively free of objectionable content—it's rated PG, even though its core audience will likely be adults, not children. That's a recipe that might not make for the finest of French meals, but it’s a satisfying concoction that won’t give you a lingering case of heartburn. Like the Michelin ratings Mallory covets for her restaurant, The Hundred Foot Journey is at least one star better than most of its competition.

CAUTIONS (may contain spoilers) :

• Language/Profanity:  “Oh, God!”; “for God’s sake”
• Drinking/Smoking:  A few scenes of drinking
• Sex/Nudity:  None
• Violence/Crime:  A joke about cooking children in an oven; bribery; Molotov cocktails ignite; a man is badly burned
• Religion/Morals/ Marriage :  Father jokes that he thought his family may have died in an accident and entered heaven; critics are said to be like restaurant gods, and the gods are said to be cruel

Publication date: August 8, 2014

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Parental guidance: tmnt , the hundred-foot journey and more, we give you what you need to know about the family-friendliness of this week's new releases..

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Rating: PG-13, for sci-fi action violence.

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The Hundred-Foot Journey

Rating: PG, for thematic elements, some violence, language and brief sensuality.

Helen Mirren stars as the uptight owner of an elegant restaurant in the south of France. Om Puri plays the boisterous patriarch who moves his family into her quaint village and opens a new Indian restaurant directly across the street — 100 feet away, to be exact. Their competition, and the way they sabotage each other, is petty and cruel but amusing. And eventually — spoiler alert! — their rivalry leads to multicultural understanding. There are a couple of brief instances of violence — one in the beginning, one in the middle — in which vandals attack the Indian family’s restaurants, setting fire to them and even causing a death. But in both cases in director Lasse Hallstrom’s film, these are opportunities for rebuilding and redemption. Fine for kids around 10 and older.

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Rating: PG-13, for some language and suggestive material.

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• DVD & Streaming

The Hundred-Foot Journey

• Comedy , Drama , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

• August 8, 2014
• Helen Mirren as Madame Mallory; Om Puri as Papa; Manish Dayal as Hassan; Charlotte Le Bon as Marguerite; Amit Shah as Mansur; Farzana Dua Elahe as Mahira

Home Release Date

• December 2, 2014
• Lasse Hallström

Distributor

• Walt Disney

Movie Review

Madame Mallory has wished upon a star. A second Michelin star, to be exact.

For 30 years, Madame Mallory’s swanky restaurant has worn its single Michelin star rating as a badge of honor, as well it should. Michelin does not readily dole out its stars. As Madame’s sous chef Marguerite says, one star means the food is good. Two stands for great. “Three is only for the gods.”

The acquisition of those stars requires talent, hard work and single-minded dedication. They do not fall unbidden. And they do not stumble into town along with a pack of loud, uncouth vagabonds. Madame is quite certain of that .

The vagabonds, a certain displaced Indian family—Papa and his grown sons Hassan and Mansur, along with Mansur’s wife and kids—has indeed seen better days. Their restaurant in Mumbai was burned to the ground. Their stay in London was unfruitfully damp. They came to the Continent looking for a fresh start—a chance to open another restaurant and introduce new friends to the spicy, sublime pleasures of Indian cuisine.

France wasn’t initially a contender. They all know that the French have their own food, and it’s said to be pretty good. But when the brakes go out on their dump of a vehicle (just outside Madame Mallory’s village) and Papa stumbles upon a property just perfect for a restaurant (just across the street from Madame Mallory’s fine dining establishment), he sees it as fate. And so, quicker than Madame can crack eggs for a nice hollandaise, she has boisterous new neighbors—and competitors to boot.

Well. For Madame and her perpetual quest for a second star, this new Indian restaurant is the stuff of nightmare. Its garish decor clashes with her refined sensibility. Indian music now blares over her violin-drenched ambiance. The odor of curry and cardamom overwhelm the subtle scents of her kitchen. She launches a cold war before Papa even opens his restaurant—waged through fish and pigeons and formal complaints to the village leaders.

As Papa and Madame battle and bully each other, Hassan humbly cooks his extraordinary Indian food for guests. Then he retreats to his room and combs through French cookbooks, absorbing the secrets of continental cuisine page by page.

Madame has her eyes fixed on a second Michelin star, but searching for it has blinded her to the quiet culinary light across the street.

Positive Elements

As Hassan’s father and his entrenched French rival escalate their gastronomical disagreement, Hassan tries to turn down the flame. He gives Madame a menu as a friendly gesture (which she uses as a guide to stripping the local market of all the ingredients they need). When Papa strikes back by snapping up the pigeons Madame needs for a special dish for a special guest, Hassan cooks one himself and brings it over as a peace offering. (Madame tastes it and throws it in the trash.) And when he and his family are subjected to racist attacks, Hassan doesn’t get angry or vengeful. He’s single-minded, it would seem, on his quest to bring new tastes to light—and his idea that food can bring people together. (Note that the film is flecked with hints of racism for the purpose of showing the trials Papa and his family must suffer through—and to show us how wrongheaded it all is.)

Food does bring Hassan together with Marguerite. Even though she jokes that Hassan’s now “the enemy,” she helps him hone his talents—loaning him books, giving him tips and tasting his creations. Indeed, it’s her kindness that’s partly to blame for Papa staying in town, having helped tow their car and serving them some pretty amazing local food.

Madame herself proves to be a kinder person than we initially see. When Papa’s restaurant is attacked by vandals who set fire to the building and scrawl racist slogans across the front wall, Madame takes steps to literally mend fences. She fires a culprit who works for her (“You are a chef—I do not pay you to burn things”) and trudges out in the rain to scrub the vile slogans off Papa’s wall.

Madame’s actions lead to a thaw in relations, and we eventually come to see that Hassan was only partly right: Yes, food helped bring these two disparate parties together. But it also took good will, trust and respect—a good recipe for us all to follow.

Spiritual Elements

Papa and his family are not presented as being overtly religious, certainly not in a traditional Indian sense. Hassan’s mother hints at the spiritual while teaching him to cook, saying the things he must kill to create the cuisine become ghosts in the stew, as it were. After this matriarch dies, Papa admits that he still talks with her. He believes his late wife wants (in the present tense) to settle down in the French village and buy the for-sale restaurant. “She says brakes break for a reason,” he tells one of his sons, and later gives Hassan his mother’s spices, saying, “She wants you to have it.” He and others briefly talk about praying and/or heaven.

As mentioned, the Michelin stars are several times casually linked to “gods.” When Hassan seeks Marguerite’s “blessing” for a new culinary adventure, Marguerite snaps that she’s not a saint. “Neither am I,” Hassan says.

Sexual Content

Hassan and Marguerite are rivals, friends and sometimes more. Hassan steals a smooch when they hunt for mushrooms. Later, the two share a passionate kiss in the kitchen. Then the two retreat to another room and emerge a bit later looking a little ruffled.

Madame Mallory holds up a limp asparagus spear to illustrate what her restaurant will not put up with: “Food is not an old, tired marriage,” she says. “It is a passionate affair of the heart.”

Violent Content

We see rioters invading Papa’s restaurant in Mumbai, overturning tables and setting the place on fire. Papa’s wife is caught in the blaze, and we see her surrounded by flames. She dies in the inferno.

In France, racist attackers again try to set Papa’s place ablaze, throwing Molotov cocktails into the building. Papa and the rest extinguish the flames, but not before Hassan’s hands are badly burned and his pant leg catches on fire. An out-of-control car nearly crashes. A bicyclist smashes into a truck. Recited lyrics from the French national anthem reference slit throats and blood flowing in the fields.

Crude or Profane Language

One s-word. One “h—.” Several uses of “bloody.” God’s name is misused a handful of times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Wine and champagne are integral parts of classic French cuisine, and we see most of these characters drink. When Hassan goes to Paris, he seems to drink more than usual—swallowing wine as he cooks and downing what appears to be a beer after hours. (These particular indulgences are intended to make a statement about Hassan growing more distant from his roots and the things he loves.)

Other Negative Elements

Papa is sometimes not treated with the greatest respect. “I am still head of this family!” he reminds his brood. A kitchen porter is bribed.

Food has always been a unifying agent. We bond over bacon, swap stories over sarsaparilla. When I want to talk with someone about business, we do lunch. If my wife and I want to get together with friends we’ve not seen for a while, we invite ’em for dinner. Almost every social experience I can think of, be it the Super Bowl or Thanksgiving, is at least partly about the food.

Food brings us together.

The Hundred-Foot Journey is about a clash of cultures in which the food becomes a metaphor. Madame Mallory is a picture of elegant cuisine, boasting polished presentation and restrained, subtle vitality. Papa is an embodiment of his beloved Indian tastes—full of forceful flavors and boisterous life. Hassan, in melding these two different gastronomical delights, brings disparate cultures closer together. Both are still distinct and unique. But we realize that each has merit and, when blended, can create a taste heretofore unimagined.

The Hundred-Foot Journey , based on the novel of the same name by Richard C. Morais, is a sweet and savory treat of a film with only hints of content-derived sourness—a love story ragoût of romance, family and food. It stresses the importance of all those things, while suggesting that fame and fortune and even Michelin stars aren’t that filling after all.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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The Hundred-Foot Journey, film review: Fiery performances from Helen Mirren and Om Puri in culinary culture-clash comedy

(pg) lasse hallström, 122 mins starring: helen mirren, om puri, charlotte le bon, manish dayal, article bookmarked.

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The Hundred-Foot Journey is a culinary culture-clash comedy enlivened by fiery performances from Helen Mirren and Om Puri but which, like so many other Lasse Hallström films, slowly turns to gloop the longer it lasts.

Puri is as funny here as he was in East Is East and My Son the Fanatic. He plays the patriarch of an Indian family which has moved to Europe after their restaurant in Mumbai is destroyed in a riot. His wife has died in the fire. The family first set up home in West London but quickly decide that the "vegetables have no soul".

When their rickety old van breaks down in an idyllic village in the south of France, Papa (Puri) decides this is a sign that the family should open an Indian restaurant there. The hitch is that their premises are bang opposite the Michelin-starred restaurant run by the imperious Madame Mallory (Mirren).

It is a pleasure to watch two such accomplished scene-stealers as Mirren and Puri vying with each other on screen. After a while, we even get used to Mirren's 'Allo 'Allo-style French accent.

Papa's son Hassan (Manish Dayal) is a genius in the kitchen who eventually masters French cuisine and falls in love with the beautiful French chef Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon).

Hallström shoots the movie in his usual picture-postcard fashion, throwing in shots of gorgeous French landscapes and plenty of fetishistic close- ups of the food. The charm of the early scenes is undermined by the mushiness and predictability with which the rest of the film unfolds.

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The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) Film Review – A Beautiful Exploration of Culture, Family and Food

The hundred-foot journey summary.

After the devastating losses of their family restaurant and their matriarch, the Kadam family leave India and head for Europe. They wander in search of a place where they can settle as well as open a new restaurant. Papa Kadam notices a property for sale in the small French village of Saint-Antonin. However, there are many reasons why it is not a good investment. One of which is due to the successful Michelin star rated restaurant only one hundred feet across the road. His family names other reasons to be deterred; no one in the French village will be interested in Indian food, the previous owners were not able to run a restaurant there successfully, among others. But Papa’s conversations with his deceased wife and his confidence in his son Hassan’s skills as a cook override all other concerns.

Hassan is excited to put to use the skills his mother taught him in the kitchen. He has also befriended a local girl named Marguerite. She works for the formidable Madame Mallory in the restaurant across the road. Hassan realizes that in order for his family business to succeed they must all adapt to the culture and the food. Marguerite is helpful to him in this regard. But Madame Mallory does everything she can to make it difficult for their business to succeed. She lodges complaints with the town mayor about minor infractions and purchases up all the ingredients they need before they can get to the market.

When a bigoted man attacks the Kadam restaurant, Hassan is injured, and the war between Papa Kadam and Madame Mallory comes to a head, with a surprising resolution. Suddenly, enemies reluctantly make peace. This changes the course of several lives, not the least of which is Hassan’s.

A DIRECTOR’S HOMAGE

There is a reason The Hundred-Foot Journey is one of my favorite movies. It is sweet, thoughtful, real and warm. It addresses issues like prejudice, nationalism, ambition and love in a realistic way without becoming “preachy” about it. This seems to be a hallmark quality of several films I’ve seen by Swedish director Lasse Hallström.

One of the things I appreciate about Hallström’s films is his ability to show not tell. He addresses divisive topics thoughtfully, allowing the viewer a window into both sides of an argument between flawed but still likable characters. He gives his characters time to think and to grow organically in their beliefs, instead of forcing them to be reactionary. Hallström doesn’t have a long or even commercially succesful list of films to his credit. But what he does have is better, films like Chocolat, Cider House Rules, Hatchi: A Dog’s Tale and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.  These are all unique stories which should pass the test of time more than blockbuster films by other directors.

PERSONAL JOURNEYS

Helen Mirren may be the only actress in The Hundred-Foot Journey whom American audiences may recognize. But she fills her role as the rigid, proud French woman Madame Mallory as if she was born French. Her precise and tight body language and facial expressions show a haughty woman whose only love is her beloved restaurant. But Mirren allows the pain and loneliness of Madame Mallory to seep through the tiny cracks in her facade so that the audience can empathize with her. As she allows herself to open up, she finds her world expanding instead of contracting as she fears.  Her personal growth as a character is perhaps the most profound in the film.

RELATED: Lion (2016) Review: An Emotionally Taxing Yet Vibrant Story of Love and Family

Besides the titled journey between two cultures, is the journey taken by the Kadam family. Om Puri portrays Papa Kadam as a strong, stubborn, but loving father figure for the family. He is determined to honor his late wife in his decisions. The relationship between him and his son Hassan is tenderly portrayed as each of them navigate their old world traditions, within their new country. There is a push and pull between them as Hassan urges Papa to adapt to French culture, but it is always respectful.

Then there is the issue to navigate of Hassan’s dream of being a true chef. Papa knows that his dream and his skill far exceeds their humble family restaurant. He struggles with allowing Hassan to grow beyond what the family can give him.

Both the cultural and Hassan’s personal journey to become a respected chef are further exemplified in his relationship with Madame Mallory’s sous chef, Marguerite. Their relationship begins tentatively as friends, with Marguerite more cautious due to her position with Madame Mallory. Though she shows no prejudice towards Hassan, she struggles with professional jealousy. Their romance grows very slowly, but sweetly. Hassan’s feelings are more evident, while Marguerite’s French reserve keep both the audience and Hassan guessing. Manish Dayal and Charlotte LeBon do a marvelous job with their respective characters. LeBon has such delicate features which bely her inner strength. And I couldn’t help but fall a little in love with Dayal’s Hassan, who is thoughtful, caring, forgiving and a bit of dreamer who knows how to work towards his goal.

The Hundred-Foot Journey is a beautiful film of family, love and cultural differences and acceptance, with its’ messages enhanced by the gorgeous cinematography. As it focuses on feeding the bellies of its’ characters, it surreptitiously feeds the soul of the viewer. If you have ever dreamed of an idyllic life in a little French village, then this is the film for you. From sunny days fishing and picking mushrooms, to bike riding around the village, to children playing in the square, it hits the mark on what many American envision about the French lifestyle. Between the beauty of the story and that of the setting, it really brings to mind that poetic line of John Keats, “a thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

Where to Watch: The DVD is available for purchase at a very reasonable price. Or you can rent/buy from the streaming sites, GooglePlay and iTunes.

Content Note: This film has a PG rating and is safe for the whole family.

Photo Credit: DreamWorks Pictures

OVERALL RATING

“The stuff that dreams are made of.”

ROMANCE RATING

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My

feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me

to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

ARE YOU A ROMANCE FAN? FOLLOW THE SILVER PETTICOAT REVIEW:

Brittaney has had her head in the clouds ever since she first fell in love with books and film as a young child. She's a firm believer in the power of story to transport us to new places while also transforming our hearts. She tends to favor historical fiction and classic films since they also allow her to feel like a time traveler. Brittaney is a native resident of Texas and has been honing her own ability to write and tell stories for many years now. You can find more of her wordsmith skills at her website www.storyenthusiast.com.

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2 thoughts on “The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) Film Review – A Beautiful Exploration of Culture, Family and Food”

I really enjoyed this movie.

Isn’t it good? It just kind of leaves you with a warm glow and appreciation for life.

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The hundred-foot journey - movie review.

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Director Lasse Hallström returns to the world of food with his cinematic adaptation of Richard C. Marais’ novel, The Hundred-Foot Journey , a mildly entertaining yet disappointingly predictable stewpot of ambition, romance, and redemption seasoned with the joys of returning home.

The film, co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, is set in a charming little village in the French countryside where the Kadam family, led by the family patriarch Papa (Om Puri), opens an ethnic restaurant with hopes of enticing the locals with hand-made traditional Indian dishes.

The family soon runs up against uptight Mallory (Helen Mirren), the owner of an upscale white-linen rival restaurant across the street (literally a hundred feet away), who will stop at nothing – including sabotage and underhanded tactics – to scare the family away.  Mallory sees the down-home family-style Maison Mumbai as an unsophisticated threat to her efforts of acquiring a second Michelin star, the hallmark of fine dining quality around the world.

But Mallory’s bull-headed resolve is eventually challenged by Papa’s eldest son, Hassan (Manish Dayal) whose cooking skills impress the hoity-toity restaurateur. Armed with a bequeathed quiver of magic old-country Indian spices, and secretly aided by Mallory’s sous chef Marguerite (Charlotte LeBon), Hassan soon becomes the popular star of Maison Mumbai. Sooner or later Mallory may be forced to confront Hassan and his growing culinary skills.

Visually, Hallström is in his element, bathing the breathtaking Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val (standing in for Lumiere) countryside in the heavenly glow of God’s light. The man clearly knows where to put the camera for a great-looking shot. With The Hundred-Foot Journey, he follows his own lead from 2000’s Chocolat with another sensual symphony of culinary delights.

All five senses are tickled by the deliciously choreographed festival of whisking, chopping, and blending over fresh-baked breads and bubbling sauces. The number of tight shots on skilled fingers expertly sprinkling fine powders and grainy spices is only surpassed by Hallström’s close-ups on the angelic face of relative newcomer LeBon. Her soulful eyes and warm presence play quite nicely against Mallory’s prickly comportment. We can hope to see more of her in the coming months.

Hallström rarely fails to coax the most from his cast, and that's certainly the case here. Though the relationships often feel embarrassingly contrived and even overtly melodramatic at times (credit screenwriter Steven Knight for ensuring those in the back row understand the emotional intensity of every scene), we believe in the deep friendships shared by the characters. Sure, we see the hook-ups coming from a mile away, and the dialogue never even sniffs smart, but the winning performances make the ride a mostly enjoyable one.

But the third act isn’t nearly as satisfying. Hallström seems to lose his sense of pacing and the tone gets all out of whack as the tacked-on subplot of Hassan’s career as a star chef in Paris becomes the story’s main focus. Though it doesn’t wreck the entire film, we curiously long for that simple but familiar by-the-recipe plot.

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MPAA Rating: PG for thematic elements, some violence, language and brief sensuality. Runtime: 122 mins Director : Lasse Hallström Writer: Steven Knight Cast: Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal Genre : Drama | Romance Tagline:  The Hundred-Foot Journey, Memorable Movie Quote: "Cuisine is not an old tired marriage. It is a passionate affair. Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Official Site: http://www.dreamworksstudios.com/films/the-hundred-foot-journey Release Date: August 8, 2014 DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: No details available. Synopsis : In The Hundred-Foot Journey, Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) is a culinary ingénue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, the Kadam family, led by Papa (Om Puri), settles in the quaint village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France. Filled with charm, it is both picturesque and elegant – the ideal place to settle down and open an Indian restaurant, the Maison Mumbai. That is, until the chilly chef proprietress of Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin starred, classical French restaurant run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), gets wind of it. Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant a hundred feet from her own escalate to all out war between the two establishments – until Hassan's passion for French haute cuisine and for Mme. Mallory's enchanting sous chef, Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), combine with his mysteriously delicious talent to weave magic between their two cultures and imbue Saint-Antonin with the flavors of life that even Mme. Mallory cannot ignore. At first Mme. Mallory's culinary rival, she eventually recognizes Hassan's gift as a chef and takes him under her wing.

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By far the best film to go into wide release this weekend in theaters and yet destined to struggle to get the attention it deserves, this little Disney gem of a film stars Helen Mirren in a role refreshingly unlike the Helen Mirren we've been seeing as of late as Madame Mallory, the proprietess of a Michelin starred restaurant in Southern France called Le Saule Pleureur. Madame Mallory's seemingly idyllic existence in the quaint, picturesque village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val is thrown into an upheaval with the arrival of the Kadam family and their decision to open an Indian restaurant, the Maison Mumbai, a mere one hundred feet away from Le Saule Pleureur. Helmed by the cantankerous Papa (Om Puri) and featuring his culinary-gifted son Hassan (Manish Dayal), Maison Mumbai, quickly becomes the object of Madame Mallory's icy scorn until Hassan crosses the line due to his love of French cuisine and a certain sous chef (Charlotte Le Bon) leads to a softening of the rivalry. When Madame Mallory discovers that, indeed, Hassan is an incredibly gifted young chef with a vibrance and imagination that captures the spirit of cooking, she takes him under her wing and The Hundred-Foot Journey becomes a film with tremendous warmth and heart as one might expect from director Lasse Hallstrom, producer Steven Spielberg and, of course, Walt Disney Studios. 

For those who aren't particularly fond of feeling emotionally manipulated by a film or a filmmaker's vision, The Hundred-Foot Journey could very well prove to be a maddening experience as it is a film that radiates intentional warmth, heart, and relational substance. This isn't your usual summer fare, because it cares far too much about the people whose story it is telling and it takes the time to let you get to know them.

Hallstrom has long been one of my favorite directors even with his more lesser known fare, though I will confess that I found his detour into a couple of Nicholas Sparks adaptations to be mundane and pointless. While his last critically acclaimed film was The Cider House Rules, films such as Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and An Unfinished Life still had enough Hallstrom within them that I appreciated them even if I didn't quite celebrate them on the usual level. The Hundred-Foot Journey isn't a perfect film, but it's a return to film for Hallstrom and it's a good enough film that I find myself wanting to have all of my intelligent, sensitive, and relational friends rush over to the theater to catch it so we can ensure that it hangs around for a few more weeks. This is the kind of film that one usually finds existing only within a Landmark Theater and it's rather exciting to see it distributed by Disney and getting a chance at a wider audience.

The film also continues Disney's recent trend towards a greater embrace of cultural diversity. Of course, anyone with half a brain knows that this is more than a little bit inspired by the growing international box-office but I have to believe there's something else going on as Disney is giving films such as this one and the under-appreciated Million Dollar Arm a solid distribution.

While Mirren is still her usual icy and serious self here in some ways, as the film progresses it becomes a bit of a return to form for Mirren as we're allowed to see a softer, funnier, and more endearing performance by Mirren and it's a side of her acting that we really haven't seen as much as of late. Om Puri, a fine Indian actor too often relegated to stereotypical roles, is a delicious delight as Papa. Mirren and Puri have a delightful, if somewhat forced, chemistry and their scenes together have that certain PG-rated bite that is less cutting and more just plain fun to watch. Manish Dayal also excels as Hassan, radiating a warmth and passion that fits the story and the scenery quite nicely.

The film is beautifully lensed by Linus Sandgren, who beautifully captures the French landscape while also working well with the production design team to give the a retro feeling despite our own awareness that it is set in the present. As a director, Hallstrom has never really been one for innovation and instead he simply tells decidedly human stories with an unabashed openness to heart and soul. There's nothing particularly surprising in The Hundred-Foot Journey, but a day after having seen it I find myself still smiling when I think of the film's characters, words, and images. I think, in the end, that's how Hallstrom really wanted it.

© Written by Richard Propes  The Independent Critic  

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Too Many Cooks Spoil the Village

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By A.O. Scott

• Aug. 7, 2014

The first faces on screen at a recent advance showing of “The Hundred-Foot Journey” belonged to Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, who do not appear in the movie itself but are credited among its producers. It’s a bit unusual to be subjected to a promo trying to sell you on a movie you have already committed to seeing, but Mr. Spielberg and Ms. Winfrey clearly could not contain themselves, and took a moment to share their enthusiasm. In the clip (which has also aired on television), Ms. Winfrey, using the trademark falsetto singsong that is her version of conversational italics, tells us how excited she is to present this amazing movie, while Mr. Spielberg uses variations on the word “incredible” at least three times. Noting that “The Hundred-Foot Journey,” based on a popular novel by Richard C. Morais , is about food, Ms. Winfrey asks, “Can I say it’s delicious?”

Who could stop her? But, on the other hand: Who would believe her? There is a lot of soft-core culinary montage in the movie, directed by Lasse Hallstrom with the easygoing blend of elegance and vulgarity that has been his signature at least since “Chocolat.” Eggs are cracked in slow motion and whisked to the sounds of A. R. Rahman’s transnational airport music score. Vegetables are chopped with melodramatic frenzy. Tomatoes fairly burst in the golden sunlight of southern France. Words like “cèpes,” “garam masala,” “écrevisses” and “tandoor” are uttered with almost erotic intensity. And yet “The Hundred-Foot Journey” is likely neither to pique your appetite nor to sate it, leaving you in a dyspeptic limbo, stuffed with false sentiment and forced whimsy and starved for real delight.

Well, maybe not entirely. Helen Mirren and Om Puri are the top-billed players here, and time spent watching them is never entirely wasted. Mr. Puri is Papa Kadam, the patriarch of an Indian family that has been in the restaurant business for generations. He and his four children arrive in a small town in the south of France and set up Maison Mumbai, where the smell of their spices and the sound of their music offends the sensibilities of Madame Mallory (Ms. Mirren), proprietress of the venerable Michelin-starred establishment across the street. The clash of imperious and irascible that these two well-seasoned actors perform is spirited and effortless, but there is nowhere near enough of it.

Instead, there is a culture clash gastro-rom-com spooned out with extreme caution. The main character is Mr. Kadam’s son Hassan (Manish Dayal), a gifted and handsome cook, who supplies early voice-over narration and later exchanges smoldering glances and stolen kisses with Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), a sous-chef in Madame Mallory’s restaurant. She lends him classic French cookbooks, and he cross-pollinates their tried-and-true recipes with flavors and techniques from back home.

All of which would be fine, even captivating, if “The Hundred-Foot Journey” were really interested in food, culture, ambition, family or any of the other themes it reduces to slogans and clichés. But it is so systematically wrong about all of these things as to seem actively dishonest. Hassan and his family flee Mumbai in the wake of political violence described as following from “some election or other.” French xenophobia receives similarly cursory, abstract treatment. There are some racist hooligans in the village, and one in Madame Mallory’s kitchen, which is plausible enough.

Madame’s culinary chauvinism, in contrast, seems as dated and stereotypical as the frog’s legs and escargots on her menu, and the film’s assumptions about gender and cooking. Women here can nurture and spot talented chefs, but that status is implicitly reserved for men.

The French are fussy and snobbish, the Indians clannish and boisterous, and the movie is in such a hurry to avoid real conflict that it also avoids suspense, drama and emotional impact. Mr. Dayal, in spite of his sensitive, brooding good looks, has a way of disappearing on screen, and no real heat develops between him and Ms. Le Bon. The plot lurches and meanders, stapling tepid scenes of comedy to flimsy bits of melodrama with musical passages and repetitive long shots of the pretty countryside. Mr. Hallstrom seems to lack either the ability or the desire to flesh out secondary characters or to attend to the textures of local life. You have caught more evocative glimpses of France and Mumbai in television commercials.

If the food were any good, such lapses might be more tolerable. But despite a late, knowing excursion to Paris and the trendy world of molecular gastronomy, “The Hundred-Foot Journey” is at its worst when it steps behind the stove. At one point, we are treated to a brief lesson on the five canonical sauces that are the basis of classical French cooking. One of these is hollandaise , which then appears to be prepared with olive oil, which would make it aioli, or perhaps mayonnaise, but not hollandaise as Madame Mallory and her old-school ilk would recognize it. This may sound like a small, pedantic quibble, but a movie that continually proclaims its reverence for the discipline of the kitchen and the glories of tradition should pay attention to such details.

If it did, it might find a place alongside “Ratatouille,” “Babette’s Feast” and other touchstones of foodie cinema. But this film is not in love with food; it is commercially invested in the idea that food is something people think they love. It is an empty pastry shell, an artificially sweetened meringue, with no substance or conviction. Early in the film, Hassan samples a sea urchin. “It tastes like life,” his mother tells him. Maybe so, but the dominant flavor of “The Hundred-Foot Journey” is pure banality.

“The Hundred-Foot Journey” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). A few hints that eating is a sensual activity connected with other sensual activities.

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The Hundred-Foot Journey review – food wars in the south of France

E ver-ravenous critics attending the press screening of Lasse Hallström 's sweetly spicy dish were served tasty bowls of vegetable curry. It was a smart move – with its droolsome depictions of briskly fluffed omelettes, plump ripe fruits and richly sauced meats, this isn't a film you'd want to watch on an empty stomach. Set in an obscenely bucolic south of France (the misty-eyed views make Ridley Scott's A Good Year look like a gritty Ken Loach production), the story centres on culinary whiz Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal), whose father opts to open a curry house across the street from a celebrated French restaurant. Food and culture wars ensue as proud Papa (Om Puri) and hoity Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren) bicker and squabble while Hassan starts to break eggs with sous chef Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon) who teaches him the saucy secrets of "classic" French cuisine. Despite boasting Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey (who championed Richard C Morais's source novel ) as producers, this remains more of an amuse-bouche than a hearty meal – as delicately presented as the dishes in Madame Mallory's Michelin-starred establishment, and with more than a tang of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel . Puri is great fun as the indomitable head of the family, and Mirren convinces as the grand dame, despite dishing out her lines in an accent that staunchly refuses to set.

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