The thought occurred to me, only fleetingly, that this could be a typical bad-boy chef story—temperamental artist ‘burns’ too brightly and ‘scorches’ himself and everyone around him in the process. I’m using air quotes because they’re about as subtle as this film’s message. I thought surely an actor of Bradley Cooper’s stature (not to mention Emma Thompson’s, Uma Thurman’s and Sienna Miller’s) would reject a film that was canned. I was wrong. While visually beautiful to watch, Burnt is trite and disappointing. Cooper and Miller are wonderful as gifted and driven chefs. The food-prep scenes are artistic, and the glimpses of rivalry and comraderie among chefs also are entertaining. The Americans’ Matthew Rhys is especially fun to watch (and pure eye candy) as Cooper’s archrival. But the storyline is just not worth the price of admission and in fact will aggravate moviegoers who expect more from a cast of this caliber. If you want to see a good chef movie, rent Jon Favreau’s Chef.
Should You See It? Wait for the DVD.
Viewed at Wehrenberg Ronnies 20 Cine
