Quickie Review:
Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) is a gifted chef who ruined his life and career with drugs and alcohol. Determined to get set his life and career ambitions straight, he returns to London to lead his kitchen to Michelin star status. Burnt is packed with talented actors such as Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, and Daniel Brühl. A lot of the weight of the movie is on their shoulders, unfortunately they could not carry it all the way through. The main problem is the beats the movie goes through are largely predictable. Quality performances make Burnt an acceptable, decent film, albeit a forgettable one.
Full Review:
Was I excited for Burnt? Honestly, not really. Then again looking at the cast I thought you couldn't go wrong to give this movie a chance. After all last year I saw Chef another foodie related drama that I happen to really like. I also like the TV show Hell's Kitchen, so any flair of Gordon Ramsay should be fun.
Actually Bradley Cooper ended up being more like Gordon Ramsay than I expected. He is a hot head, striving for perfection, and if you do anything wrong, there's going to be a huge mess of broken plates to clean up. As brilliant of a chef as Jones may be, his weakness in the kitchen is that he is old school. So seeing him fit back into the changed world of high class cuisine was interesting. Sienna Miller was also a good addition, as she's the only one who is able to stand up to the head chef. This led to some interesting face-offs in difference of opinions. For me, the best of the three main cast was Daniel Brühl. This actor deserves more praise than he receives. His portrayal of the character is subtle, his actions are motivated by love but he never draws focus to it. To him he is just doing favour or a job, nothing more. In many ways that made him feel more real of a person than any other character in the film.
That being said, I couldn't really care for the character development for long because I knew exactly where everyone was going to end up being. This includes the obligatory love story, the sweet moment with a kid, and the acceptance of responsibilities of a leader. As in any typical story structure there has to be a crisis. However, in this film that crisis occurs way too abruptly. I'll admit that in that point in the story the moment was very effective, but then every character conveniently changes to their perfect selves
I didn't see anything before that said these people were on their way to better themselves, and all that was needed was a catalyst. In other words, things happen in this movie not because it's a coherent flow to the story, but because it must fit the typical story structure of beginning, middle, climax, and resolution. So there all these pieces to the movie that are good on their own, but don't fit well together.
By no means do I hate this movie. It is sufficient. If you are looking for some good performances with great looking food being prepared by great looking people, you couldn't ask for anything more perfect. On the other hand if you require a little more meat to the bone (substance to the story), you are better off waiting.
