The Menu (2022)

Title:  The Menu

Year: 2022

Genre: Comedy | Horror | Thriller |

Runtime: 107 min

Director: Mark Mylod

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult

 7.2/10

Expecting nothing less than the best of everything haute cuisine has to offer, a group of ultra-wealthy gastronomes with a demanding palate arrive at the Hawthorn: an exclusive culinary temple run by highly regarded gourmet chef Julian Slowik. And prepared for an exquisite multiple-course meal and the experience of a lifetime, obsessive epicurean Tyler and his unimpressed plus-one Margot enter the private minimalist restaurant. At last, the long wait is over. However, no one knows that the cryptic genius in the kitchen has big plans for tonight. 

DELIVERING IN A BITTERSWEET TREAT

In the original film The Menu we’re introduced to a tasteful experiment with dignity, elegance and mass murder. It’s an illuminating tale of with a sense of illuminate the diner guest by follow the menu; a concept that is taking and overall look on several implications of the cook’s ability to wooze the guests. 

It has an elegant sitting, a like the insurance of quality from a Michelin-restaurant or something of that. A diner that fulfills the expectation of the overall experience. We also get an intoxicated cast of John Leguizamo, Anya Taylor-joy, Nicholas Hoult and Ralph Fiennes.

While John Leguizamo is like a forgotten, rotten food in this and a wash-upped actor, Anya like an undercooked cheeseburger and Nicholas like an underwhelming pre-course. It’s Fiennes that sells this film. It’s his ability to amaze the audience and the guest. It’s even his talent to be Chef Slowik in a startle performance. It’s quite bland movie without his star gaze. He has the capacity to be both charming and terrifying, some knowledge he has used over the years.

It’s both filled with plain comedy and unsatisfied jokes that does land the mark. There’s some script issue that could need another turn. The editing that makes everything moves both fast and slow. Even if it looks and feel right, it something in this film that bothers me. It has a welcoming start, for sure. There’s an undying loyalty to the chef Slowik that is remarkable from the cook.

There are details in the story that confuses me as well. Anya and Nicholas don’t feel well adjusted for the film. Once there’s a action scene, it doesn’t add up to be fulfilling. I try hard to vary the courses and the meals that’s served. With an expected finale, I can’t remind myself to wonder why does it feel like something is missing? Like that there’s something potential here that’s ignored which is a shame. It has good start, shocking twist in the middle with a disappointed ending that makes the film feel as flat as a pancake.