So Joanne says you can’t hate on a feel good movie.
Well let me do my best. First of all, half the movie is food making montages. I
think for most of the world that is terribly boring. Sitting and watching
people make food that I can’t eat was just awful (made worse but the fact I was
pretty hungry while watching the movie). Joanne brought up the point that there
were some strange plot gaps that that didn’t really make sense. She claims that
we should forget them in order to enjoy the movie. I say no. I can’t enjoy a
movie if it doesn’t allow me to suspend my disbelief. I spent a good chunk of
this movie going, “mhmm, I don’t see how that could happen.” The best example
of this is the ten year old social media guru. Really, a ten year old built
your business by using twitter, Commmmeeeeee------ooooonnnnnnn. This movie
attempts to be happy at all costs. Why else end the movie with the remarriage
of the chef to his ex-wife, whose relationship is never really developed
outside of a few lines that they share together. I mean really, it’s not all
bad, there are some funny parts and really I promise I didn’t hate it, it was just
blaahhh. It was just not all that interesting. A man was lost in his work and
in his relationships; the man finds fulfilling work and therefore his relationships
get miraculously fixed. It’s really that simple and doesn’t get much deeper
than that.
As I write this I realise I sound like a grumpy old
man. Which to be fair, deep down inside I think I am. However, recently I was
reminded of a poem by Henry Howard in which he wrote of the quiet mind being
one of the most desirable things in life. He was likely correct when he wrote
that and I suppose with a quiet mind you may be able to overlook the glaring
lameness of this movie and really enjoy it as just a happy movie in which everything
works out in the end. However, I just don’t find that very interesting. I think
HBO ruined me.
My
friend, the things that do attain
The
happy life be these, I find:
The
riches left, not grown with pain;
The
fruitful ground; the quiet mind.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey