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“The Hundred-Foot Journey” is a film that demands that you take it seriously. With its feel-good themes of multicultural understanding, it is about Something Important. It even comes with the stamp of approval from titanic tastemakers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg , who both serve as producers. What more convincing could you possibly need?

There’s something familiar about the treacly and sanctimonious way this film is being packaged. It reeks of late-‘90s/early ‘00s Miramax fare: films with tasteful yet ubiquitous ad campaigns and unabashed Oscar aspirations which suggested that seeing them (and, more importantly, voting for them) would make you a better person. Films like “The Cider House Rules,” “Chocolat” and “The Shipping News.” Films by Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom.

Hallstrom just happens to be the director here, as well, and the similarities to “Chocolat” are inescapable. Stop me if think you’ve heard this one before: A family moves into a quaint but closed-minded French village and shakes things up with an enticing array of culinary delicacies. This new enterprise happens to sit across the street from a conservative and revered building that’s a town treasure. But the food in question isn’t a bon bon this time—rather, the movie is the bon bon itself.

But despite being handsomely crafted, well acted and even sufficiently enjoyable, “The Hundred-Foot Journey” is also conventional and predictable. And for a film that’s all about opening up your senses and sampling spicy, exotic tastes, this comic drama is entirely too safe and even a little bland.

What livens things up, though, is the interplay between Helen Mirren and Om Puri as battling restaurant owners operating across the street from each other—100 feet away from each other, to be exact, a short but fraught trip that various characters take for various reasons. Watching these veteran actors stoop to sabotage each other provides a consistent source of laughs. She’s all sharp angles, piercing looks and biting quips; he’s all round joviality, boisterous blasts and warmhearted optimism. The contrast between the British Oscar-winner and the Indian acting legend offers the only tension in this otherwise soft and gooey dish—that is, until the film goes all soft and gooey, too.

Mirren stars as Madame Mallory, owner of Le Saule Pleurer (The Weeping Willow), an elegant and expensive French restaurant that’s the winner of a prestigious Michelin star. But one star isn’t enough for the coldly driven Mme. Mallory—she wants another, and then another.

But her bloodless quest for gourmet grandeur is interrupted by the arrival across the street of an Indian family: the Kadams, who’ve been wandering around Europe ever since their beloved restaurant back home burned down during political rioting. When the brakes on their car malfunction on a treacherous stretch of spectacular countryside, Papa (Puri) insists it’s a sign from his late wife and decides to open a new eatery in the charming town at the bottom of the hill.

Never mind that one of the most celebrated restaurants in all of France is sitting right across the street from the empty building he rents. Never mind that they are in an insular part of the country where the residents probably don’t even know what Indian cuisine is, much less like it, as his children point out. He has faith in his food—and in his son, Hassan ( Manish Dayal ), a brilliant, young chef.

Just as Papa and Mme. Mallory strike up a sparky rivalry, Hassan enjoys a flirtatious relationship with French sous chef Marguerite ( Charlotte Le Bon , who played an early model and muse in the recent “Yves Saint Laurent” biopic). The script from Steven Wright (who also wrote the far trickier “ Locke ” from earlier this year, as well as “ Dirty Pretty Things ” and “ Eastern Promises ”) is full of such tidy parallels, as well as trite and overly simplistic proclamations about how food inspires memories. Dayal and Le Bon do look lovely together, though, and share a light, enjoyable chemistry.

Then again, it all looks lovely—both the French and Indian dishes as well as the lush, rolling surroundings, which we see through all four seasons; the work of cinematographer Linus Sandgren , who recently shot “American Hustle.” This sweetly pleasing combination of ingredients would have been perfectly suitable if the film didn’t take a wild and needless detour in the third act. That’s when it becomes an even less interesting movie than it already was, in spite of its loftier aspirations.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

122 minutes

Helen Mirren as Madam Mallory

Om Puri as Papa

Manish Dayal as Hassan Haji

Charlotte Le Bon as Marguerite

Amit Shah as Mansur

• Lasse Hallström
• Steven Knight
• Richard C. Morais

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• Cast & crew
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The Hundred-Foot Journey

The Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory's Michelin-starred eatery. The Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory's Michelin-starred eatery. The Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory's Michelin-starred eatery.

• Lasse Hallström
• Steven Knight
• Richard C. Morais
• Helen Mirren
• Manish Dayal
• 266 User reviews
• 185 Critic reviews
• 55 Metascore
• 2 wins & 4 nominations

• Madame Mallory

• Jean-Pierre

• Mayor's Wife

• Swedish Chef
• Baleine Grise Porter

• Hassan (7 years old)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Om Puri (Papa) was called "Papa" by the cast. He also moved out of the hotel they all stayed in so that he would have a place to cook for them.
• Goofs When Hassan is first making the 5 main French sauces, he is is mixing egg yolks in a bowl and adding oil and something that looks like mustard. He is making mayonnaise, not one of the sauces. Hollandaise, the one sauce out of the five made with yolks, is made in a bowl over steaming water and adding clarified butter.

Madame Mallory : What is this flavor that is fighting against the chicken ?

Hassan : I added some spices for flavor to the sauce, and coriander for garnish and freshness.

Madame Mallory : But why change a recipe that is 200 years old ?

Hassan : Because, madam, maybe 200 years is long enough.

• Connections Featured in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Helen Mirren/James Cameron/Spoon (2014)
• Soundtracks Afreen Music by A.R. Rahman Lyrics by Gulzar Performed by Nakash Aziz , A.R. Rahman and the KM Sufi Ensemble

User reviews 266

• Kirpianuscus
• Jan 8, 2019
• How long is The Hundred-Foot Journey? Powered by Alexa
• August 8, 2014 (United States)
• United States
• United Arab Emirates
• Hành Trình Trăm Bước
• Castelnau-de-Lévis, Tarn, France (Lumière, Restaurants)
• Amblin Entertainment
• Dreamworks Pictures
• Harpo Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $22,000,000 (estimated)
• $54,240,821
• $10,979,290
• Aug 10, 2014
• $89,514,502

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 2 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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The Hundred-Foot Journey, film review: Fiery performances from Helen Mirren and Om Puri in culinary culture-clash comedy

(pg) lasse hallström, 122 mins starring: helen mirren, om puri, charlotte le bon, manish dayal, article bookmarked.

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The Hundred-Foot Journey is a culinary culture-clash comedy enlivened by fiery performances from Helen Mirren and Om Puri but which, like so many other Lasse Hallström films, slowly turns to gloop the longer it lasts.

Puri is as funny here as he was in East Is East and My Son the Fanatic. He plays the patriarch of an Indian family which has moved to Europe after their restaurant in Mumbai is destroyed in a riot. His wife has died in the fire. The family first set up home in West London but quickly decide that the "vegetables have no soul".

When their rickety old van breaks down in an idyllic village in the south of France, Papa (Puri) decides this is a sign that the family should open an Indian restaurant there. The hitch is that their premises are bang opposite the Michelin-starred restaurant run by the imperious Madame Mallory (Mirren).

It is a pleasure to watch two such accomplished scene-stealers as Mirren and Puri vying with each other on screen. After a while, we even get used to Mirren's 'Allo 'Allo-style French accent.

Papa's son Hassan (Manish Dayal) is a genius in the kitchen who eventually masters French cuisine and falls in love with the beautiful French chef Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon).

Hallström shoots the movie in his usual picture-postcard fashion, throwing in shots of gorgeous French landscapes and plenty of fetishistic close- ups of the food. The charm of the early scenes is undermined by the mushiness and predictability with which the rest of the film unfolds.

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Film Review: ‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’

Lasse Hallstrom returns to 'Chocolat' territory with this overlong serving of cinematic comfort food.

By Justin Chang

Justin Chang

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Beef bourguignon or tandoori goat? Career success or family loyalty? You can actually have it all, according to “ The Hundred-Foot Journey ,” a culture-clash dramedy that presents itself as the most soothing brand of cinematic comfort food. As such, this genteel, overlong adaptation of Richard C. Morais’ 2010 novel about two rival restaurants operating in a sleepy French village is not without its pleasures — a high-energy score by A.R. Rahman, exquisite gastro-porn shot by Linus Sandgren, the winningly barbed chemistry of Helen Mirren and Om Puri — all prepared to exacting middlebrow specifications and ensured to go down as tastily and tastefully as possible. With the formidable backing of Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey (who produced with Juliet Blake), the DreamWorks concoction should cater to a broad array of arthouse appetites, particularly among those viewers who embraced the similar East-meets-West fusion cuisine of “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”

If this Old World foodie fairy tale feels like an odd fit for screenwriter Steven Knight — best known for his gritty London underworld thrillers, and coming off an unusually adventurous directing debut with “Locke” — it’s worth recalling that his scripts for the much edgier “Eastern Promises” and “Dirty Pretty Things” were directly concerned with the hostilities bred in and around specific immigrant communities. Still, with its cozy, crowd-pleasing temperament, the new film represents all-too-familiar territory for director Lasse Hallstrom, whose superficially similar “Chocolat” offered up a smug little parable about the triumph of sensual indulgence and liberal tolerance over stifling small-town conformity. The culture war examined in “The Hundred-Foot Journey” is a bit less one-sided: It contrasts the heat and intensity of Indian cooking with the elegance and refinement of French haute cuisine, then balances the two with a feel-good lesson in ethnic harmony.

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Fleeing a tragic uprising in their native Mumbai for a more idyllic life in Europe, the Kadam family, led by their proudly outspoken Papa (Puri), decide to open an Indian restaurant in the South of France. Alas, they soon find that they have merely abandoned one war zone for another, as their scrappy new Maison Mumbai, with its open-air seating and free-wandering chickens, is soon locked in a fierce competition with the classy Michelin-starred establishment located just 100 feet across the road. That restaurant, Le Saule Pleureur, is run by the widowed Madame Mallory (Mirren), an unyielding perfectionist and proud defender of Gallic tradition whose first glimpse of her brown-skinned neighbors prompts her to sniff, “Who are zees people?”

Zees people, little does she realize, include one of the most talented young cooks in Europe. That would be our protagonist, Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal), who soon begins a sly flirtation with Le Saule Pleureur’s beautiful sous chef, Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon); she in turn introduces him to the venerable tradition of French cooking, which he becomes determined to master. The tension between these two characters, sexual as well as professional, is something the film keeps on a low simmer behind the more fiery confrontations between Papa and Madame Mallory, neither of whom is afraid to resort to all manner of competitive sabotage — whether it means sneakily buying up all the crayfish at the farmers market, or filing complaints with the mayor (Michel Blanc), humorously depicted as something of a gourmand himself.

Amid all this fun but childish oneupsmanship, Knight and Hallstrom gently milk all the expected stereotypes for humor and conflict: The French are snobs with their hoity-toity manners and expensive food, and they’re deeply affronted by the thrifty, tacky Indians with their colorful clothes and loud music. France’s ugly history of racial aggression and unrest, particularly relevant at the present moment, briefly punctures the film’s placid surface when local thugs attack and nearly burn down Maison Mumbai. But rather than lighting a fuse, this trauma is what begins to unite the Kadams and Madame Mallory, who soon realizes that Hassan is not only an exceptional cook, especially when armed with his family’s prized spice box, but possibly the missing ingredient that could earn Le Saule Pleureur its second Michelin star.

And so “The Hundred-Foot Journey” becomes a story in which cultural opposites not only learn to coexist, but are in fact triumphantly and even romantically reconciled. It may be set in France, but really, it could be taking place in any movie-manufactured fantasyland where enemies become the best of friends, and an embittered old shrew turns out to have a heart of gold (and, as Papa appreciatively notes, looks rather fetching beneath the glow of computer-generated Bastille Day fireworks). Morais’ novel was described by the New York Times’ Ligaya Mishan as a hybrid of “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Ratatouille,” and Hallstrom seems to have taken that Hollywood formulation to heart: Like “Slumdog,” the film is an underdog story set to the infectious backbeat of Rahman’s music (fun fact: Knight created the original British version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”), and like “Ratatouille,” it brings us into an irresistible world of culinary sophistication and features gorgeous nighttime views of Paris, where Hassan eventually arrives in search of his destiny.

Where the film really overreaches is its attempt to reproduce “Ratatouille’s” glorious Proustian moment, that perfect bite of food that induces a heartbreaking recollection of childhood. This wannabe epiphany arrives deep into a draggy third act, during which the script and the handsome Dayal struggle to give Hassan some semblance of a conflicted inner life, but the character, much like his meteoric rise to the top ranks of international chefdom, remains something of a sketch. It’s the older, top-billed leads who manage the heavy lifting: Though she’s encumbered somewhat by her French accent, Mirren is superb at both projecting an air of hauteur and expressing the vulnerability beneath it, and she brings out a similar mix of pride and feeling in Puri’s Papa, an excellent sparring partner whose stubbornness and drive to succeed never come at the expense of his love for his family.

Shot on 35mm in luminous, sun-dappled tones in the French village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val (with some second-unit work in India), and handsomely appointed by production designer David Gropman and costume designer Pierre-Yves Gayraud, the film is also distinguished by its mouth-watering visual buffet, whether lingering on vats of steaming red curry or a perfectly plated pigeon with truffles. This is, no question, an easy picture to succumb to — perhaps too easy, if its tidy narrative symmetries and its belief in the socially redemptive power of pleasure are any indication. Scrumptious as it all is, it hurts to watch chefs so committed to excellence in a movie so content to settle for attractive mediocrity.

Reviewed at Disney Studios, Burbank, Calif., July 23, 2014. (In Locarno Film Festival — Piazza Grande.) MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 122 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a DreamWorks Pictures and Reliance Entertainment presentation in association with Participant Media and Image Nation of an Amblin Entertainment/Harpo Films production. Produced by Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Juliet Blake. Executive producers, Caroline Hewitt, Carla Gardini, Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King. Co-producers, Holly Bario, Raphael Benoliel.
• Crew: Directed by Lasse Hallstrom. Screenplay, Steven Knight, based on the novel by Richard C. Morais. Camera (color, widescreen, 35mm), Linus Sandgren; editor, Andrew Mondshein; music, A.R. Rahman; music supervisor, E. Gedney Webb; production designer, David Gropman; supervising art directors, Karen Schulz Gropman, Alain Guffroy; set decorator, Sabine Delouvrier; costume designer, Pierre-Yves Gayraud; sound (Datasat/Dolby Digital), Jean-Marie Blondel; supervising sound editor, Michael Kirchberger; sound designers, Dave Paterson, Kirchberger; re-recording mixers, Michael Barry, Paterson; special effects supervisor, Philippe Hubin; special effects coordinator, Jean-Christophe Magnaud; visual effects supervisor, Brendan Taylor; visual effects producer, Mitchell Ferm; visual effects, Mavericks VFX, Mr. X, Lola VFX; stunt coordinator, Dominique Fouassier; assistant director, Mishka Cheyko; second unit camera, Hugues Espinasse; casting, Lucy Bevan.
• With: Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon, Amit Shah, Farzana Dua Elahe, Dillon Mitra, Aria Pandya, Michel Blanc. (English, French, Hindi dialogue)

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Review Roundup: The Hundred-Foot Journey

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Director Lasse Hallström's new film The Hundred-Foot Journey which stars actors Helen Mirren , Om Puri , and Manish Dayal hit theaters last week, and the reviews aren't the kindest. Although the movie has a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes , many critics found the film to be incredibly predictable and a little too bland. Most found the movie to be a "comfort food film" that wraps up a little to easily into a perfect little package. The majority agree, however, that the film is well acted and most enjoyed the film's visual beauty, especially the food porn . As with all food-centric films, brace for reviews loaded with food metaphors. Below, check out reviews of the Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg produced movie:

The Hello, Emotions News: Time's Richard Corliss enjoys the feel-good nature of the film: "[It's] a story that forges warm feelings between two generations of restaurant rivals, The Hundred-Foot Journey is on a mission to make you cry . Whether you oblige will depend on your fondness for, or immunity to, the gentler stereotypes of movie romance." [Time]

The Formulaic News: Entertainment Weekly's Chris Nashawaty finds much to like about the film but is not a fan of how conventional the plot is. He writes, "The battle unfolds with all the predictability of a train-station timetable … All of these by-the-numbers beats go down smoothly enough…It's soothing, easily digested comfort food. Which is to say it's the perfect recipe for a filmmaker like Hallström." [EW]

The Great News: The San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle finds that there is "nothing corny" about the movie. In fact, it "is one of those rare movies that gets better as it goes along . It unfolds, one incident into the next, in what feels like a methodical pace, until very soon everything about it feels lived in, and realized." [SF Gate]

The Too Perfect News: Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times liked the movie but writes that it all ties up too nicely: "Enjoyable as Hundered-Foot Journey can be, it's still possible to wish that its gloss was not quite so shiny , that the film had more of the messy juices of life to it." [LAT]

The Painful News: The Guardian's Tom Shone applauds the "swishy slo-mo" food shots and that's about it. In particular he hates the third act ("easily the most boring stretch of the film") which he writes "should have retitled itself The Slightly Longer Than Anticipated Journey , or It Looked a Lot Smaller On The Map." Two out of five stars. [Guardian]

The Food Looks Great News: The Wall Street Journal finds that while the movie is at time flawed, visually it's stunning: [The director] and his cinematographer, Linus Sandgren, certainly fulfill their first responsibility to this film—making the food look screen-siren glamorous . (Still, it doesn't seem fair to French cuisine that Indian dishes come in otherworldly colors.)" [WSJ]

The Seriously, the Food Looks Great News: Mark Jenkins files a review for the Washington Post in which he calls the film "merely amiable." The food porn is a different story: " The real stars, of course, are the food and the scenery , both bathed in celestial light. The Hundred-Foot Journey is basically a promo reel for small-town France and Gallo-Indian food fusion. Anyone who requires a more substantial meal should eat before heading to the theater." Two stars. [Washington Post]

The It Brought Out my Inner 'Foodie' News: Rolling Stone's Peter Travers writes, "The heavy plot sauce weighs down the movie. Mirren and Puri, two pros who know how to lift an audience over plot hurdles and turn a merely digestable diversion into a treat. Linus Sandgren's camera caresses the cuisine like an ecstatic lover. It brought out the foodie in me." Three-and-a-half out of four stars. [Rolling Stone]

The So-So News: Though Vulture's Bilge Ebiri calls the movie "a moving piece of food porn , he also finds that "the film never quite manages to make the various bits of obligatory poetry about food and passion sing. We get a lot of breathless proclamations that cooking is about soul…but there's a disconnect here , perhaps an intentional one." [Vulture]

The Really Bad News: New York Times movie critic A.O Scott has few kind words to say about the film. Quote" There is a lot of soft-core culinary montage in the movie…Words like 'cèpes,' 'garam masala,' 'écrevisses'and 'tandoor' are uttered with almost erotic intensity. And yet The Hundred-Foot Journey is likely neither to pique your appetite nor to sate it , leaving you in a dyspeptic limbo, stuffed with false sentiment and forced whimsy and starved for real delight." [NYT]

The Bland News: Sheri Linden of the Hollywood Reporter finds that the movie is great for when you don't want to think. Quote: With its picture-postcard setting and mouthwatering Indian and French delicacies, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a movie designed to comfort. Stimulating taste buds and little else…Fans of the source best-seller and seekers of non-challenging counterprogramming to summer's genre fare will savor the offering. But colorful locales and exotic spices can't hide its essential blandness ." [Hollywood Reporter]

· All The Hundred-Foot Journey Coverage on Eater [-E-] · All Good News/Bad News Coverage on Eater [-E-]

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The Hundred Foot Journey | Review

Like Curry For Chocolat: Hallstrom Sticks to the Fruits of the Bestseller List

Owning a successful restaurant in Bombay, the Kadam family seems to enjoy a rather lucrative existence. But when tragedy strikes, causing the family to lose both the restaurant and its matriarch, Papa Kadam (Om Puri) relocates his family to London. But the glum weather soon drives them away from England, at least that’s the excuse the family tells Customs officers as they travel through Europe looking for a new home. Breaking down in the French countryside, they stumble upon the small town Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val and are assisted by a lovely young ingénue, Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon). Papa finds an abandoned restaurant property and decides that the family is meant to set up shop in this village. Only, the rural folk already have a restaurant at their disposal, an esteemed establishment that happens to have a Michelin star and is run by the imperious Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren). Undeterred by these seeming odds, Papa is confident that the incredible culinary talents of his son, Hassan (Manish Dayal) will drive the success of an Indian restaurant, Maison Mumbai. But the Kadam family underestimates just how much Madame Mallory doesn’t want them there.

There was a time when Hallstrom was an intriguing name in the cinematic realm, though you’d have to scroll back to his work in the 1990s to see real evidence of this. Lately, he seems to routinely guide us through whatever sludge he’s taken a handsome paycheck to helm, and The Hundred-Foot Journey feels like a safe bet of a film, reaching only for a wan pleasantry.

Helen Mirren, as usual, is enjoyable to watch, though a transformation as competitive ice-queen to an unlikely love interest for Om Puri is rather improbable, at least how it rather disruptively unfolds here. The developing romance between Manish Dayal, forced to contend with a character arc that’s tepid and devoid of emotion, and Charlotte Le Bon, who has a rather bird-like Winona Ryder screen presence, is inevitably used for obvious finale effect.

As politely charming as its main players tend to be, the film proves to be stiffly resistant to dealing with serious issues and fleshing out supporting characters. What happens to that pesky, graffiti prone racist played so sullenly by Clement Sibony, whose antics cause serious physical harm and property damage? Sternly and irrevocably dismissed by Dame Helen he is. And then you might miss the fact that it’s Michel Blanc starring as the mayor, a notable French actor who has appeared in a variety of important works, including some great titles from Bertrand Blier and Patrice Leconte.

A.R. Rahman’s sorely abused score stands out as more of a presence than many of the film’s shushed characters, supplying a steady stream of exotic, phantom wisps of sound every time Hallstrom wishes to establish a wistful mysticism around Hassan’s magical culinary gifts.

It’s a typical and almost taken-for-granted use of music in a film featuring Indian characters made for white or Euro audiences, it seems, so it’s no surprise that among Rahman’s extensive credits as composer to note that he also worked on Slumdog Millionaire (2008). But for all the aspects of The Hundred-Foot Journey (speaking of which, the hundred feet between the restaurant properties seems a miscalculated distance) that one could possibly bemoan, this is at least a painless tonic compared to the horrendously awful output of late from Hallstrom, including the likes of Safe Haven (2013) and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011). If films about the culinary arts revolved around the same strictures to obtain something like a Michelin star rating, The Hundred-Foot Journey would always and forever be a big fat zero.

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.

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The Hundred-Foot Journey review – food wars in the south of France

E ver-ravenous critics attending the press screening of Lasse Hallström 's sweetly spicy dish were served tasty bowls of vegetable curry. It was a smart move – with its droolsome depictions of briskly fluffed omelettes, plump ripe fruits and richly sauced meats, this isn't a film you'd want to watch on an empty stomach. Set in an obscenely bucolic south of France (the misty-eyed views make Ridley Scott's A Good Year look like a gritty Ken Loach production), the story centres on culinary whiz Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal), whose father opts to open a curry house across the street from a celebrated French restaurant. Food and culture wars ensue as proud Papa (Om Puri) and hoity Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren) bicker and squabble while Hassan starts to break eggs with sous chef Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon) who teaches him the saucy secrets of "classic" French cuisine. Despite boasting Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey (who championed Richard C Morais's source novel ) as producers, this remains more of an amuse-bouche than a hearty meal – as delicately presented as the dishes in Madame Mallory's Michelin-starred establishment, and with more than a tang of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel . Puri is great fun as the indomitable head of the family, and Mirren convinces as the grand dame, despite dishing out her lines in an accent that staunchly refuses to set.

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The Hundred-Foot Journey: Trailer 1

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The Hundred-Foot Journey

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Helen Mirren

Madame Mallory

Manish Dayal

Hassan Kadam

Charlotte Le Bon

• Average 6.3
• Reviews 147

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Parental Guidance

Parental guidance: tmnt , the hundred-foot journey and more, we give you what you need to know about the family-friendliness of this week's new releases..

In Theaters This Week:

Teenage mutant ninja turtles.

Rating: PG-13, for sci-fi action violence.

This live-action reboot of the franchise featuring modified, crime-fighting, pizza-eating turtles is a Michael Bay production. That means it’s essentially a Transformers movie, complete with shiny action sequences and destructive battles that place innocent bystanders in peril. The turtles themselves may be cute and cool and wacky in other incarnations but here, the special effects make them odd-looking in an off-putting way. Still, they emerge from the sewers to defend New York City, as is their duty, with the help of Megan Fox as an intrepid TV reporter. The enemy is a giant robot samurai named Shredder who resembles a Japanese Megatron. He’s working with a wealthy, villainous scientist (William Fichtner) who wants to rule the city by releasing a deadly toxin. There are explosions, lots of gunfire and general mayhem as a roaming group of marauders known as the Foot Clan terrorize the city and take hostages. I saw this movie with my son (who’s almost 5) and he was a bit frightened of Shredder, but only briefly.

The Hundred-Foot Journey

Rating: PG, for thematic elements, some violence, language and brief sensuality.

Helen Mirren stars as the uptight owner of an elegant restaurant in the south of France. Om Puri plays the boisterous patriarch who moves his family into her quaint village and opens a new Indian restaurant directly across the street — 100 feet away, to be exact. Their competition, and the way they sabotage each other, is petty and cruel but amusing. And eventually — spoiler alert! — their rivalry leads to multicultural understanding. There are a couple of brief instances of violence — one in the beginning, one in the middle — in which vandals attack the Indian family’s restaurants, setting fire to them and even causing a death. But in both cases in director Lasse Hallstrom’s film, these are opportunities for rebuilding and redemption. Fine for kids around 10 and older.

Step Up: All In

Rating: PG-13, for some language and suggestive material.

I’m guessing that the solitary, casually tossed F-bomb is the main reason that this fifth Step Up movie received a PG-13 rating. Otherwise, it’s pretty harmless as it offers one dance battle after another after another. This time, the action takes place at a competition in Las Vegas, with various characters from the previous films assembling and reassembling in different crews. The ultimate prize is a three-year deal performing at Caesars Palace. Maybe some of the dance moves are slightly and briefly risque — the thrusting, the suggestion of some sexual acts — but it all flies by at a dizzying pace. Even the dancers’ night out on the town is chaste. No smoking for these agile, muscular guys and gals, and even the drinking they do consists of a few glasses of celebratory champagne. Totally fine for kids around 8 or 9 and up.

New On DVD:

Rating: PG-13, for intense violence and action, thematic elements and some sensuality.

This is yet another movie based on a young adult novel set in a dystopian future where teenagers must fight each other for survival. Tweens who have read the book — and anyone familiar with this genre, really — will know what to expect in terms of violent situations and disturbing imagery. Still, because it’s rated PG-13, there’s very little blood to accompany the considerable body counts that accumulates. Shailene Woodley stars as Beatrice — or Tris, as she renames herself — a modest girl who faces the momentous task of deciding which of society’s five factions is the best fit for her. She chooses to join the Dauntless, which means a quick and demanding training regimen of shooting, fighting, throwing knives, climbing great heights and jumping from moving trains. But she also must defend herself against the competing initiates who are trying to take her down. It’s intense, dark stuff with a lengthy running time at two-plus hours.

Need For Speed

Rating: PG-13, for sequences of reckless street racing, disturbing crash scenes, nudity and crude language.

Aaron Paul’s first major role post- Breaking Bad finds him starring in this zippy, flashy action thriller in which a lot of cars get seriously mangled. Paul plays a small-town drag racer and mechanic who must compete in that tried-and-true one last race to redeem himself and save his family’s shop. It’s a high-stakes road challenge full of exotic sports cars, which inevitably causes some serious crashes. These adrenaline junkies knowingly put themselves in this dangerous situation — and some of them won’t survive — but they also subject untold innocent pedestrians and fellow drivers to their general disregard for human safety. Probably fine for viewers age 10 and up — but kids, don’t try this at home.

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The Hundred-Foot Journey

Director Lasse Hallström's ( Chocolat ) adaptation of the Richard C. Morais novel about the rivalry between an Indian restaurant that is 100 feet away from a three-Michelin-star-hunting bistro in the south of France. Produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, starring Oscar-winner Helen Mirren ( The Queen ).

A young immigrant named Hassan (Manish Dayal, Breaking The Girls ) and his father (Om Puri, Ghandi ) open an Indian restaurant in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France. Hassan - a gifted chef - must win over the eccentric Madame Mallory (Mirren), the head chef at the revered Le Saule Pleureur bistro.

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The Hundred-Foot Journey | Ratings & Reviews

Rotten tomatoes® rating, audience score rating, children & media rating.

"Often with foodie films, the filmmakers treat the on-screen dishes like Michael Bay treats women: they tart the subject up and use glistening gratuitous close-ups with the intention of making the audience drool. But in this adaptation of Richard C. Morais’ novel, Chocolat director Lasse Hallström isn’t as interested in food porn as he is in food romanticism."

"It contrasts the heat and intensity of Indian cooking with the elegance and refinement of French haute cuisine, then balances the two with a feel-good lesson in ethnic harmony."

"The movie’s never tastier than when screen vets Mirren and Puri are sparring, pettily buying out each other’s produce at the local market or bellyaching to the town’s mayor."

"Is likely neither to pique your appetite nor to sate it, leaving you in a dyspeptic limbo, stuffed with false sentiment and forced whimsy."

"A film that telegraphs all its beats and character arcs, executes them adequately but without passion or personality, then congratulates itself on a job done."

"When it comes to character development, Manish Dayal, as Hassan, and Le Bon are sold short, landed with thankless, undeveloped roles."

"Colorful locales and exotic spices can't hide its essential blandness."

"It is the film's winning collection of wonderful characters that will truly satisfy all tastes."

The Hundred-Foot Journey | Details

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The Hundred-Foot Journey with Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey

The recipe, the ingredients, the journey, on set with oprah winfrey, coconut chicken, rotten tomatoes® score.

Mirren is drily funny, deploying an arsenal of MasterChef-style horrified reaction shots.

How wrong can you go with a comedy about beautiful people making beautiful food in the south of France? And Helen Mirren? The woman can turn 105 and she'll still be alluring, even when she's being haughty. Lots of laughs.

It's an enjoyable film about passion; the passion for food, passion for culture but most of all, passion for life.

This isn't your usual summer fare, because it cares far too much about the people whose story it is telling and it takes the time to let you get to know them.

If you're into simple, pleasant movies that offer two-hour escapist entertainment, this may be for you.

[A] beautifully written story.

Fulfilling, rich and delicious, The Hundred Foot Journey is an effervescent delight, sizzling with cinematic and emotional flavor.

If films about the culinary arts revolved around the same strictures to obtain something like a Michelin star rating, The Hundred-Foot Journey would always and forever be a big fat zero.

For foodies and folks looking for the cinematic version of a poolside paperback, THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY delivers. If you're seeking something with a little artistic nutrition, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Overall, The Hundred-Foot Journey is not a bad dish, but considering its rich ingredients, it still lacks a bit of spice.

Additional Info

• Genre : Comedy, Drama
• Release Date : August 8, 2014
• Languages : English, Spanish
• Captions : English, Spanish
• Audio Format : 5.1

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