The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

The journey in director Lasse Hallström’s latest film is much longer and more meandering than the title implies. Based on the best-selling novel by Richard C. Morais, the story follows the Kadam family’s emigration from Mumbai to England to the south of France, eventually settling on son Hassan (Manish Dayal), a talented family-taught chef, and the family restaurant’s rivalry with Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), the proprietrix — her picayune well-deserving of the suffix -— of the Michelin-starred restaurant across the street. Were that all, it would certainly be enough, but the screenplay by Steven Knight continues on to Paris, where Hassan has become a celebrated chef unable to enjoy his isolated success. Read the rest of the review here.