A chef who loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.
Favreau is sometimes too heavy on the schmaltz. But, largely, Chef will leave you hungry for more.
Favreau’s mid-life-crisis culinary comedy could do with less ham and cheese and beefier action. But it’s a flavoursome slab of comic comfort-food that works up a viewer appetite.
Eat well beforehand or you’ll be in tummy-rumbling, tongue-hanging-out agony as the merry band cook their way across America. Good fun and happy, filling fare.
Favreau's picture doesn’t represent the filmmaking rehabilitation its meta plot alludes to, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Chef is all about droolsome cuisine – but it also contains more than your recommended daily allowance of sugar and cheese.
A sassy and mouth-watering concoction, bursting with flavour.
The result is a small, unashamedly feel-good film that makes up for what it lacks in dramatic jeopardy with gentle comedy, heartwarming family scenes, ladles of food porn, and time spent among characters you like. It's not great art, but it is made with care and skill and integrity.
There's nourishment to be had, if you lower your expectations.
It's all enjoyable, wholesome fare but just a little bit bland – a few added kitchen nightmares might have made for a more intense and memorable flavour.
Chef is good-natured, big-hearted and hard to dislike.
It doesn’t shout or swear for your attention (unlike most contemporary comedies) but trundles along amiably and amusingly with its heart very much in the right place.
The result is a small, unashamedly feel-good film that makes up for what it lacks in dramatic jeopardy with gentle comedy, heartwarming family scenes, ladles of food porn, and time spent among characters you like. It's not great art, but it is made with care and skill and integrity.
For all its reheated film-food cliches (cooking as a metaphor for bonding – sexual, fraternal, familial) and refried road-movie beans, Chef slips a few tasty side dishes around its meat-and-potatoes main course.
The end result is undemanding, but not unsatisfying.
Chef: A feast for the eyes, an eye for a feast
General release. Check local listings for show times.