The Hundred-Foot Journey

The cinematic meal served here is tasty but not very filling. There is some real appeal, however, in the basic setup. A refugee family of Indian restaurateurs, the Kadams, moves into a picturesque French village and opens up Maison Mumbai, a grand-looking Indian restaurant, just across the road from a Michelin-rated French restaurant, Le Saule Pleureur, run by the snooty Mme. Mallory (Helen Mirren). A mildly impassioned rivalry develops between the two establishments, and between the two proprietors, the widowed Papa Kadam (an ebullient Om Puri) and Mme. Mallory, herself a widow. And there are other complications of note. Hassan (Manish Dayal), the eldest of the Kadam sons and a chef of special gifts, gets involved—romantically, professionally and otherwise—with Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), a comely sous chef working for Mme. Mallory. But The Hundred-Foot Journey means above all to offer up a pleasant array of good feelings. It does that often enough that the presold audience for which it was made is not going to worry too much about the childish simplicity of the characterizations or the dull predictability of emotional scenes. Cinemark 14 and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG