September 7, 2014 -- Director Lasse Hallström started out with dessert 14 years ago and has now gone on to the main course in this delectable new romantic comedy about food wars. He directed the charming food war comedy “Chocolat” in 2000, now, with “The Hundred-Foot Journey” he continues his food war theme. “Chocolat” was about a war between the deeply religious conservative mayor of a small French town and a Bohemian woman who opens a Chocolate shop during Lent. His latest film is about a war in another small French town between two competing restaurant owners.

The two competing restaurant owners are formidable, forceful people, Madame Mallory (played by Helen Mirren of “Red”) runs the Michelin-rated haute cuisine restaurant in a small town, while Papa Kadam (played by veteran Indian actor Om Puri of “Ghandi”) an immigrant upstart, opens an Indian restaurant across the street, 100 feet from Mallory's restaurant. The film opens with some background on the Kadam family, which was forced to flee from India after being caught up in the crossfire of a political dispute.

Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal of “The Sorcerer's Apprentice”) is the head cook at his father's Indian restaurant. He describes himself as a cook, taught by his late mother (who died in the attack on the family's restaurant in India) but he is really a chef, with a subtle palate and a gift for combining spices and foods in imaginative and tasty combinations. Hassan falls in love with a beautiful Sous-Chef, Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon of “Mood Indigo”) who works in Mallory's kitchen.

Mallory does her best to put Kadam out of business, buying up all the food in the local markets that Kadam needs, and appealing to town officials to enforce zoning and noise restrictions against his restaurant. Kadam fights back against Mallory by bribing some of her workers and using the information he gets from them to deny her a key ingredient Mallory needs for a visiting dignitary's favorite dish. The war between the two restaurants escalates until finally it goes too far. Mallory is appalled by the extreme actions taken on her behalf, and declares an end to the conflict.

Hassan takes this truce a even farther. Mallory is won over by Hassan's imaginative combination of Indian spices in traditional French recipes. Both Hassan's father, and Mallory take pride in Hassan's accomplishments. From there, the story goes in a different direction, which is far less confrontational, or, as the Vulcans say, “Infinite diversity in infinite combinations.” While the conclusion is easy to foresee, it is nonetheless satisfying.

The acting is superb by the lead actors, Mirren, Om Puri, Dayal and Le Bon, however, Mirren is so thoroughly British, I could not see her as being French. She does do a good job of acting snobbish about French cooking. Om Puri's performance as the family patriarch is the glue that holds this movie together. While Hassan, Mallory, and Marguerite all live for cooking and food, for Kadam, his family comes first. He is fiercely protective of his family and his family's interests, determined to succeed in business, and he is proud of his Indian heritage.

Like “Chocolat” this is a light and lively romp, a war of amiable combatants. If you liked that film, you'll probably like this one too. If you didn't like “Chocolat,” you probably won't like this either. I liked both. There are also some similarities between this film and the animated film “Ratatouille” (2007). This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2014 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at .