Chef (2014)

When I watched Chef the other day, something just didn't sit right with me about it. I really wanted to enjoy it, but I found myself impatiently waiting for it to end. I didn't get involved in it at all, but I couldn't figure out the reason. It wasn't just the cringe-worthy attempt to be hip by continually referencing Twitter, although that definitely grated on me. I sat and pondered this for a while, and eventually realised why I couldn't get into this film. There wasn't enough at risk to make it interesting to watch.

The reason they're all so happy is because not a single thing has ever gone wrong in their entire lives.

Most films follow the three act structure. The first act is used for exposition, and it introduces the characters, setting, and some sort of problem for the characters to overcome, or a goal for them to strive towards. The second act involves the characters attempting to solve the problem, but finding themselves unable to, and everything goes pear-shaped for them. In the third act, the characters complete their character arc, where they learn something about themselves or grow/change in some way, and finally solve the problem at the end of the movie. The tension is supposed to rise and rise throughout the film until the climax finally gives us the satisfying resolution we've been waiting for.

This is what a normal movie feels like as we're watching it.

In this movie, Jon Favreau plays the eponymous chef, who ends up leaving his job at a restaurant after having creative differences with the owner and a humiliating public fight with a critic. Instead, he opts to buy a food truck and travel around, selling the food that he's passionate about. Now, in a more interesting film, he'd struggle for a big portion of the film. Maybe the truck keeps breaking down in the middle of nowhere, or perhaps he can't seem to attract many customers. He'd probably be on the verge of giving up on his dream, but finally, towards the end, he'd manage to overcome all of this and succeed. There'd be the big, rewarding payoff that we'd been waiting for.

However, in this film, that's not how it went down. In this film, this is what happens after he quits his job at the restaurant:

• He got his hands on an old food truck.
• His old work colleague turned down a promotion in the fancy restaurant to come and work alongside him in this decrepit truck for no money whatsoever. I guess I'm willing to let this one slide. Maybe they were incredibly good friends or whatever, but that was a terrible business decision on the colleague's part.
• Colleague gets the truck spruced up all nice.
• Chef's son posts Tweets and Vines about them, which go viral and attract a huge fan base wherever they go, making them instantly successful.
• The critic who had wronged the chef earlier in the film comes with a gushing apology, and vows to buy him a goddamn restaurant where he can do whatever he wants.
• Chef gets his ex-wife back.
• Everyone lives happily ever after.

Everything goes well for him after the initial problem is encountered. It just doesn't make for an interesting film at all.

This is what Chef felt like as I watched it. Apart from the tiny rise in tension where he quits his job, nothing else got in his way, making the whole ride far too easy to keep me interested.

I get that this film is probably just supposed to be a feel-good movie about the dude's family, but I really didn't find it particularly interesting. There are plenty of feel-good movies in which there's still conflict to make it more exciting. I'm a fan of Favreau's work in quite a few other movies, but this was essentially two hours of him living out his fantasies on screen, where he plays around with his cuisine hobby, and somehow gets with both Scarlett Johansson and Sofia Vergara. Also, just a minor thing, but I got a bit sick of all the cuban music by the end of the movie. I don't even know why. Maybe that was just me.

Overall, I rate Chef 3/10.

I did enjoy all the food porn, although for a film called "Chef", I expected a lot more of it. It certainly was a feel-good movie. In fact, it was too much of a feel-good movie. There was so much good-feeling that it was boring to watch.