Brief Story Line
Tyler (Nicholas Hoult - The Current War, Tolkien etc) and Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy - The Queen's Gambit mini series, Last Night in Soho etc) were invited to an exclusive dining experience in a restaurant managed by celebrity chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes - No Time to Die, The Hurt Locker etc) in a secluded island. There were only few other people who were going to the restaurant, including wealthy couple Richard (Reed Birney - Lost Girls etc) and Anne (Judith Light - Ugly Betty TV series etc), actor George Diaz (John Leguizamo - Encanto, Collateral Damage etc) and his assistant Felicity (Aimee Carrero - Young & Hungry TV series etc), famous food critic Lilian (Janet McTeer - Jessica Jones TV series etc) and her editor Ted (Paul Adelstein - Prison Break TV series etc) and finance executives Soren (Arturo Castro), Bryce (Rob Yang) and Dave (Mark St. Cyr).
Before they start dining, the group were given a tour of the island by the maitre d' Elsa (Hong Chau - Downsizing etc). As soon as they began, it slowly became clear that the Menu was not ordinary, in fact it has a twisted nature.
So what would happen during this exclusive dining experience? You could find out when you see this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well that was quite extraordinary. I had pictured something in my mind what would happen in this movie (probably I was a bit biased after seeing glimpses of the scenes in the trailer). However it turned out to be completely different from what I expected in a really good way. It has been a while that I could be surprised by a movie, so it was really nice to experience it again last night.
The movie actually started off pretty standard with a bit of introduction of the characters which did not take very long but somehow we could feel attached to some of the characters immediately. The presentation of the food were really well done showing us what we could enjoy if we go for a truly exclusive restaurant such as the one in this film. As we continued watching and looking at the beautiful food decoration, we could always feel there was something dark going to happen. And then we got to the scene that shocked me as I did not see it coming which I was sure the audience who were in the studio were totally caught of guard as well. From that moment on, we viewed the movie in a really different way.
This movie was categorized as black comedy, horror though for me it felt more like a thriller rather than horror. I guess some people could see this as horrifying and likely the reason to put it under horror genre. Whatever the genre is, the dark humor were quite apparent and could be felt in few scenes. During the movie, we could relate to few things like Tyler's preference to take pictures of the food or Margot who was probably more like the rest of us and enjoyed a more "normal" dining experience. My wife and I were of the same opinion that Ralph Fiennes was truly brilliant as a famous celebrity chef with all his attitude.
I admired the directing of Mark Mylod who was quite experienced in directing some episodes of Entourage, Game of Thrones and Succession TV series. His story telling was really good and kept us interested even from the start till its conclusion. The film was written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy who should be applauded for their creativity. They even engaged professional food designer to help in making the menu more realistic & lovely. And the cast were generally wonderful, especially obviously Fiennes as I mentioned above, as well as Nicholas Hoult and Anya Taylor-Joe who were convincing in their roles. Oh I also did not realize that Anne was played by Judith Light that we knew from years ago when she portrayed Tony Danza's boss in that famous Who's the Boss? comedy series (although my wife did notice her).
Overall as a thriller movie, this was really good and enjoyable. It was entertaining and unique as it managed to combine the recent conditions in the society with a thrilling story and few humor. Though there were few intense moments, the film was not a full suspenseful type. One thing that I personally thought could be done a bit differently was the climax scene as I thought it was somewhat illogical. But then again it did not ruin the whole ending which was quite satisfying. My wife did spot something in the very last scene, which could give a different perspective of the ending too. So, if you are into a movie that was unlike the ordinary kind of thriller with touches of dark humor, then you could give this a try and I think you would enjoy this just as my wife and I did. But if your preference is full of suspenseful moments and very intense with lots of action, then this might not be to your liking. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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