The Menu served up some horror, comedy and drama with the dessert of visuals, music and splendid performances throughout. I had a wonderful time with this film from the establishing shot of our two leads waiting for the boat, to the final shot, of Margot escaping, the only one left alive.
Speaking of the story, we began with a little dock scene, which is frankly always a treat. A dock means so many things, usually it always means boats, but dock leads to boat, which means water time and that, that’s where the fun begins. In this case, the boat meant that we were going on a luxury journey to a $1,200 a head dinner on a private island with a self contained restaurant, serving all their own produce. Tyler and Margot are introduced to us as a vaguely interested, slightly estranged and particularly judgey couple. Tyler is obviously invested in this more than Margot, who seems to just be along for the expensive ride. More rich people are introduced before the grand tour of the island. On the tour, we meet a food critic, Wolf of Wall Street lite trio and movie actor with lady. The whole journey, from the first step onto the boat, a weird tension is built up. There’s a long shot of the boat leaving the island and cutting back to Margot’s face, as she sees her only way off the island sail away into the distance…hopefully stopping before it slams into the shore and brutally killing all crew on board. We’re also shown the beach, with sharp looking sticks and branches scattered along the sand, like a large scale Saw trap. They also give us a long look at the huge and heavy restaurant door being shut by employees, locking them all in the room together.
During the tour, Elsa guides, explaining where the food is coming from. She is quite monotone in her delivery, giving off that cold and icy attitude that we all long for when working in the customer service industry. Jumping to the restaurant, the kitchen is open with only a half wall divider in place, leaving the kitchen very visible to the guests. This felt like a brag, head chef Julian is so confident in the cooking ability of him and his team that he will let his high profile, high paying guests see exactly the process, knowing that their uncoordinated, sloppy hands could never replicate the dishes presented to them that evening.
Dish one is presented in a very typical cinematic cooking show format, we get the slow, closeup shots of the finishings, with the corner text explaining the dish to us losers who don’t know what fine dining even means. Julian comes out to explain the dish and its meaning, as he welcomes the guests to the night. Overall, this dish goes without a huge rise in tension. This doesn’t come until Julian gives out a carb conscious bread course and then peaks when the sous chef is invited to come and present the next dish of the evening. They lay out a lovely white sheet and place some aromatic plants around, before the sudden shift in atmosphere as the sous chef pops a gun in his mouth and then, head blown out from the back. Thankfully, the kitchen had some plastic curtains that could shield the rest of the courses from his blood. From this point, Julian’s objective becomes very clear and he openly admits to the guests that everyone on the island is going to die that night. I think this is where the openness of the kitchen comes into play. Julian isn’t hiding anything, everyone is open, especially when the tortillas have bank statements and infidelity printed out on them. There is a level of acceptance and denial blended into narcissistic rich people's privilege that things are either going to work out or not, they’re at peace with that.
At this point, we’re pretty settled into the chaos and inevitability of this movie. The rest of the ride is seeing whether the menu plan is followed through or if someone can change the plans and “save the day” through the power of love, joy and affection. The women have their moment of togetherness as the men get hunted down by the chefs, in the misty, dark wooded area of the island. There is a silent alliance between Margot and Anne, a wife of an unfaithful Reed. Reed had utilised Margot’s services in the past, which explains the “shit” Margot exclaims when she sees the couple coming down to the docks in the start of the film.
To me, this film is pretty surface level in its meaning, there is not a whole lot of subtext and meaning hidden deep within metaphors or symbolism, it is a chef who is pretty petty, getting caught up in the art of it all and deciding to just commit to the craft. I like that all characters are there for varying reasons of pettiness. Chef Julian hates Anne and Reed because they come to the restaurant all the time but don’t appreciate the food, unnamed movie star is there because on Julian’s one day off, he watched the terrible movie he made. Tyler is there because he thinks he gets cooking. Which we can see he doesn’t when he serves up an absolute tragedy in his raw lamb and crunchy onions dish. Still plated and shot like a Chef’s Table episode. I think this part of the film took me out of the world the most, in the best way. The presentations of the dishes like a reality cooking show made it something to watch and note rather than something to take as a real film with any real focus on immersion. This concept starts with the first dish, presented objectively, telling us what is in the dish and showing us what it looks like. It isn’t until the breadless bread course when we get a tinge of sarcasm, building up more and more each course until the final course, the s’more. It takes us out of the moment of horror that everyone just blew up and brings us back to the fact that it is just a movie and nothing matters now, hasn’t mattered then and won’t matter soon.
The way Magot escapes the island in the end is excellent. Margot and Julian have a conversation about their careers and if they enjoyed what they did. They both agree that they used to. The pressure and novelty of both of their jobs has worn off. Margot asking for a simple cheeseburger from Julian takes all the pressure of the meticulous work he’s used to doing and lets him just enjoy frying, melting and serving. Margot’s career choice is slowly revealed to us through smaller clues, leading to the big bang of Tyler admitting that he knew by coming to the restaurant that night, both he and Margot would die. He brought her there as he thought she was expendable because of what she did. Absolute shock rippled through the screen, through the speakers and deep into my soul at this part. If I was sitting in a rocking chair, I would have fell back so fast that I would have flipped back over 360 back to a seated position with my mouth agar in awe.
Hitting the final overall, in conclusion and to close: This movie was the fun, shock and drama I needed to cleanse my soul. There were some high expectations set by the cast and trailer of this movie which thankfully didn’t spoil any of the surprises throughout. If anything, it was a misdirect down a cannibal route that I was not willing to travel down again after Bones and All. The cast were cast as they should have been, hitting all the sarcasm points needed to make Julian’s insane motivations understandable in a “yeah I suppose that makes sense” kind of way, a bit like when a dog bites anyone, there is alway a valid reason and I am always on their side. I am satisfied with the multi course meal plated up for us in this film. I am always glad a movie has a theme that I can work into words, plated up, served and dished out. This is one I will easily watch again, just to watch the look on other people’s faces when I’m watching it and enjoying it more than them.
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