I don’t know how this movie managed to sneak up on me; I literally had no idea that Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr were even cooking something up (haha, get it?), not until the day before its release date anyway.  I’ve always been a fan of Jon Favreau ever since I saw what they did to Iron Man blew my mind, so yeah, this film quickly became priority number one on the watch list.

So here’s my round-up of Jon Favreau (Cowboys & Aliens)’s entry to the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, Chef.

Please note that there may be spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

Chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau – The Wolf of Wall Street) was once Miami’s most promising chefs and everybody was crazy about his food.  Now, he’s in a little bit of a rut, creatively, as he feels stifled that Riva (Dustin Hoffman – Rain Man), the man who owns the restaurant he cooks for, won’t let him stray away from his “greatest hits”. It also doesn’t help that he feels disconnected with his nine year old son, Percy (Emjay Anthony – It’s Complicated), much to the chagrine of his ex-wife Inez (Sofia Vergara – New Year’s Eve).

Things come to a head when famous restaurant critic and food blogger Ramsey Michael (Oliver Platt – X-Men: First Class) decides to drop by.  Riva convinces Carl to serve the same menu he’s been serving for ten years but Ramsey rips them apart in his review for it.  Carl unwittingly starts a social media war with Ramsey and when they finally meet face to face, he has a breakdown that quickly becomes viral.  He was let go from his job and, upon the urging of Inez, decides to get an old food truck from Marvin (Robert Downey Jr – The Avengers) – Inez’ second ex-husband.  With the help of his long time friend Martin (John Leguizamo – Moulin Rouge) and his son Percy, they go on a cross-country drive selling Cubanos, the very first sandwhich that he learned to create in the kitchen.

THE GOOD:

1. The food shots.  Daaaaaaaaaamnn.   That is some excellent food porn right there.  There was a scene where Carl was making a grilled cheese sandwhich that literally had me salivating.  This movie should have the warning “DO NOT WATCH ON AN EMPTY STOMACH” because I walked out of the theater absolutely ravenous.
2. The soundtrack.  True to form, Jon Favreau really brought in fantastically cool music to highlight the emotions and feelings of the movie.  I need a copy of this soundtrack, like, now.
3. They didn’t skimp out on the roadtrip scenes.  One of my biggest pet peeves is a lazy montage in a movie that splices random stock city shots when they’re supposed to go on an awesome cross-country ride.  In this movie, thankfully that wasn’t an issue.  I don’t think I’ve seen such attention to that kind of detail since Orlando Bloom’s drive in Elizabethtown.
4. That emotional breakdown was really powerful.  I must say that it got me the tiniest bit teary eyed when he was ranting about how all of his food came from him and was created with love.  I also got a smidge guilty because I felt that he wasn’t just talking about food, you know?  Maybe that was his way of saying Eff you to all the critics who gave him a hard time for trying out something new.

THE BAD:

1. The two-dimensional characters.  Everybody basically just existed to fluff Carl’s ego and/or give him help/solutions on how to sort out his life.  Aside from Carl himself, everybody else was interchangeable.
2. An incredibly unrealistic portrayal of a nine year-old kid.  What child on the cusps of puberty would willingly choose a two week drive in a rusty old food truck in lieau of a two hour first class flight?  I mean, I get that he wants to spend some time with his dad, but come on.

THE UGLY:

1. The women.  No offense meant to Jon Favreau but it’s a difficult pill to swallow that the gals in the film all seem to be patiently holding his hand and waiting for him to get his shit together. The line “I only want to see you happy” was thrown around more times than I care to count and it’s bullshit.  He doesn’t deserve the baby-ing; he should be slapped to get some sense into his dramatic head.

All in all Jon Favreau’s Chef was a heartwarming fluffly little movie.  While probably not as action-packed and weird as the films he’s more well known for, the same care and love (maybe even more) obviously was put into making this movie.  Utlimately the story was a little bit thin and there truly was no tension, because from the get-go it was made clear that nothing bad was goig to happen to anyone, but performances were still strong and it’s cool that everybody still committed despite the small roles.

THE VERDICT: 7.5/10 mainly because of the glorious food shots.

*All photos are lifted from the film’s IMDB page.