Chocolat, No Reservations, Soul Kitchen, Big Night, Babette’s Feast, Like Water for Chocolate, The Hundred Foot Journey, Eat Drink Man Woman, Ratatouille – just some of the films about food that have bombarded us. Food has become a lifestyle obsession, rather than the fuel it was considered to be a few decades ago. Television schedules have umpteen variations of cookery shows, the kitchen is the centre of the home, farmers markets abound, cookbooks are the new coffee table tomes and social media entices people to new pop up venues. Chefs are regarded as rock stars and behave accordingly. I am no foodie, although some of the dishes served up in Burnt look like works of art. With a heavy hitting cast, this film tries to combine a Gordon Ramsay approach to preparation with a thrilling and dangerous back-story.
So, in short, Burnt is about second chances. Director John Wells was attracted to Steven Knight’s (Dirty Pretty Things, Eastern Promises, Locke, The Hundred Foot Journey) screenplay partly because of the ever growing foodie culture and also because it was a look inside the unique and combative world of restaurateurs. As creator, writer and producer of such seminal US TV series such as ER and The West Wing, Wells insisted on accurately portraying the world in which the drama is set. Shooting ER, they had four medics on set all day every day, and the non speaking cast members were all medical staff, so whatever was being done around cast members was appropriate to the scene. On The West Wing, they were surrounded by people involved in high-end politics, on the writing team and on the set.
Wells believes London is the world capital of fine dining. “Being able to shoot in top restaurants and kitchens, like Michel Roux’s … at the Langham Hotel and the Delaunay, a recent Corbijn King restaurant, was a bonus, adding to the authenticity on screen,” he says. Added to that is the involvement of a Michelin star chef, in this case Marcus Wareing, who is also a presenter on BBC TV’s Master Chef. As it turned out, during the shooting of the cooking scenes the cast and crew were virtually running a top-end kitchen. The non-speaking cast members were all trained chefs. Not that it is anything new, but I understand why they build the story around a broken man on a mission. It certainly adds a layer of intrigue to work with such a flawed creature who isn’t immediately likeable or sound.
And, like everything he touches, Cooper makes a fair fist of it. Around him are other strong performers, none better than Daniel Bruhl, his point man, with who he fell out, but in whose hotel he attempts a comeback. Among others featured are Emma Thompson as his doctor and therapist, Omar Sy, who was another he fell foul of, Uma Thurman as an influential newspaper food critic and Alicia Vikander, as the beautiful daughter of his mentor. Clearly the pathway to renewed success isn’t going to be easy given Cooper’s character’s past and that enables threats and fears to be played out.
For all the intrigue though, ultimately Burnt follows a path that is to be expected of a Hollywood film. It has been beautifully shot. The cinematography on and around the streets of London by Adriano Goldman is a delight. Rated M, Burnt is engaging and entertaining to a point and scores a 7 out of 10.
Director: John Wells
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Omar Sy, Alicia Vikander and Jamie Dornan
Release Date: 22 October 2015
Rating: M
Alex First
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television