Direction: Lasse Hallstorm
Production: Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Juliet Blake
Story: Steven Knight
Starring: Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon
Music: A. R. Rahman
Release Dates: 8th Aug, 2014
The Hundred-Foot Journey is an English comedy drama film directed by Lasse Hallstorm and produced by starring Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon.
Operah Winfrey and Steven Spielsberg are the producers of The Hundred - Foot Journey. All arguments are now invalid. If you still think you need more reasons to watch this movie than I suggest that you stop and start questioning your life. All joking aside (Well, not really) this movie is what a lot movies have stopped being. Movies today are all about being edgy and realistic, they forget about being just "feel good". The theme (Multi cultural understanding) itself is very simple but important. This movie not only allows you to enjoy the plot but also makes you reflect about the way we look at different cultures.
The director, Lasse Hallstrom, who directed movies like "The Cider House Rules", "Chocolat" and "The Shipping News" is known to make them very sweet. Sometimes a bit too much. Seeing this movie it does heavily remind you of "Chocolat" with the whole theme of cusine coming in. The cast is amazing with actors like Heen Mirren as Madam Mallory, Om Puri as papa, Manish Dayal as Hasan Haji, Charlotte Le Bon as Margeurite and Amit Shah as Mansur. In the usual style of Lasse we can see the sweet connection that begins to blossom between Hasan and Margeurite and The rivalry between Madam Mallory and Papa. All the characters are changing and contrasting as well. Even though these are all great points the minor problem is that it is a very conventional plot. Almost as though they did not want to experiment further in this genre of movies.
The cinematography, music and editing was phenomenal. It was beautiful to look at and did not feel awkward at any point of time. Thumbs up for Linus Sandgren (cinematographer) for capturing the beautiful surroundings to give a proper ambience to the movie. Also great work by the script writer Steven Wright (who wrote "Locke", "Dirty Pretty Things." and "Eastern Promises") for giving that emotion to dialogue.
Verdict: The verdict simply is that if it has been a while since you saw a feel good movie then I urge you to go watch "A Hundred-Foot Journey."