VideoVista covers rental and retail titles in all genres and movie or TV categories, with filmmaker interviews, auteur profiles, top 10 lists,
plus regular prize draws.
HOME PAGE
INDEX OF ALL REVIEWS
SEARCH THIS SITE
COMPETITIONS
FORTHCOMING REVIEWS
TOP 10 LISTS
INTERVIEWS & PROFILES
RETRO REVIEWS SECTION
ABOUT OUR CONTRIBUTORS
READERS' COMMENTS
SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER
SITE MAP
LINKS
SUPPORT THIS SITE -
SHOP USING THESE LINKS
visit other Pigasus Press sites...
The ZONE - genre nonfiction
Soundchecks - music reviews
Rotary Action - helicopter movies
|
January 2010
cast: Javier C�mara, Lola Due�as, Fernando Tejero, Benjam�n Vicu�a, and Chus Lampreave
director: Nacho G. Velilla
111 minutes (15) 2009
widescreen ratio 1.78:1
TLA DVD Region 2 retail
[released 18 January]
RATING: 6/10
review by Jo Johnson-Smith
|
Chef's Special
I do love to watch movies from around the world and when I was given this one I thought 'brilliant, something to curl up with' but what I got instead
was a 'made for TV' type movie. The whole premise is a little like The Birdcage, we get a successful gay man running the perfect restaurant
and his life begins to unravel when his children arrive.
Usually I like to watch comedy but there's an undertone in the humour I didn't like, the overuse of 'gay bashing' jokes may be acceptable in Spanish
territory it just smacks of intolerance here. It doesn't let up either and it does spoil the flow of the movie when you're trying not to hate the
people you should care about.
In saying that though the interiors and actual dialogue are not that bad, its craft is well polished and the actors well placed. It's believable,
and that's the sad factor, that even here a successful gay man with a solid relationship is made to question the entirety of his life. That he may
have been misled and mistaken in his choices to be happy, to live as he is, even though it makes for good story.
Family-friendly Chef's Special (aka: Fuera de carta) is, and I'd be happy to show this to the kids I know and not worry about what
they're seeing, just what they'd be picking up from the so called 'jokes'. The restaurant is the perfect place to show the humanity of the people
he deals with, their little foibles and the efforts he goes to get himself recognised. After all he's desperate for recognition of his talent by
getting a Michelin star and that in itself gives us a good laugh at the lengths he'll go to.
Overall, I did have fun with it but the humour left a bad taste in my mouth, it reminded me of Love Thy Neighbour, the old TV series that
made fun of the differences between a white and black family in the 1970s. It was humour, yes; it showed the differences and the similarities as
well, that everyone is human under the skin colour. But here it's a little 'off', I know Spain is catholic and to them any different lifestyle
like this is hard to accept. And the effort has been made; I just think it would have been better without the rhetoric inside it. A good rainy
day flick but remember to watch your language afterward.
|
|
|
