Gourmet food lovers can feel queasy after watching The Menu movie. While outwardly grim and threatening, it is actually a bitingly ironic film about the ultra-rich who devour expensive meals without any reason other than displaying off their wealth. However, Mark Mylod, the director does not seem to have chosen which side he supports: the rich epicures or the secret food producers that sneak in super rich people aboard a ship in the middle of nowhere and then feed them with several courses of highly priced foods which no amount of money can buy.
Performances
To some extent, Ralph Fiennes’ central performance makes this self-consciously wacky and weird satirical drama work. As a chef who is behind all the havoc caused by dinner dating; Fiennes is rather evil and terrifying as few horror show villains can be. We saw his heroic side many years back in Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg.
Even more intriguing is his portrayal of the character of Chef Slowik (it sounds odd that after rescuing Jews in Spielberg’s movie he himself now plays a Jew perpetrating his own miniature holocaust), forming eerie ambience around his culinary creation.
Without Fiennes’ ferocious finesse and stoicism though I would not have enjoyed this film much for its sake. At some point, he threatens to murder an actor (John Leguizamo) on board during one of those monster meals because of his poor performance in this particular film.
Hong Chau comes closely after him as Elsa, Slowik’s loyal assistant issuing out macabre orders such as chopping off truant guests’ fingers with the delicate cadence of a messenger from fate.
While guests remain ghostly figures, Anne Taylor-Joy (who played chess majestically Machiavellian moves in Queen’s Gambit) sticks out as Margot who refuses to become just another pawn in chef Slowik’s wicked scheme.
Final Verdict
The Menu is brilliant in its revenge strategy what if all chefs were offended by ungrateful consumers? Unfortunately, the plot weakens at the point where Margot asks for a cheeseburger without having to cook and eat. Clearly, this film is under no such pressure. Underneath its food vengeance façade lies a greasy, cheesy ‘B’ horror movie.
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