The Menu
There is no way to talk about this movie with out spoilers. So if you want a spoiler free review I will give it to you now.
This is a great movie. The less you know about it the better. Just be warned that this isn’t a horror movie, its not a horror satire, and it not a black comedy either. This is more a thriller movie. Remove all expectations and just watch it for your self.
For those of you that have seen it lets discuss below.
The Menu is a hard move to cateogrize considering that I don’t believe it to fit horror or black comedy. You spend most of the movie trying to figure out what the deal really is. It was a joy to watch this film and it was even better watching it a second time and picking up all the hints that were dropped that you don’t notice in a first viewing.
The Story:
We follow the events of an exclusive dinner at the most highly sought after restaurant ever. 5 groups of people are attending this special dinner menu at a restaurant that is located on a private island. The guest list is as follows.
The Foodie and his date:
The Regulars:
The Food Critics:
The Celebrity:
The Business Men:
The Cult:
Its almost like the Clue board is now set, but this isn’t a murder mystery more like a mystery of why these specific people are present and why they deserve what is coming.
We mainly follow the story through the perspective of the Margot the Foodie’s date. The experience of a $2500 per head dinner is really wasted on her as she sees the food as being pretentious and not really food as every dish is some high level fancy concept.
The chefs all live on the island in isolation and its made very clear that they are very cult like in their beliefs and behaviors. This menu and the guest list has been planned out to the very last detail except for one item which is Margot. She wasn’t the original date for this dinner, the foodie’s girlfriend broke up with him sometime after the reservation was made. Margot’s presence is not a welcome one and the chef makes it perfectly clear that she shouldn’t be there, but is making the best effort to try and place her in his grand plan.
That grand plan is a mass murder and suicide of everyone at this dinner. This is not made a secret it explained clearly to Margot that she will die tonight just who does she get to die with. The mystery that we are unraveling in this story is why the guest here deserve to die.
Why they deserve to die:
The Chef and the Cult: An artist that hates his art.
This mass suicide is mainly because the Chef has lost his desire for his craft and he has put this all together to end his life, end the lives of those that follow in his footsteps only to be doomed to his existence and to punish those that brought him to his current state of mind.
The Critics:
Inflated his ego and praised him but hold the keys to success or failure based only on their opinion and their bullshit understanding of the craft that the chef works tirelessly at. Elevating those that they deem worthy and ruining those they do not deem worthy. They help elevate the Chef to the level of exclusivity that he is at now.
The Regulars:
They eat there constantly, an experience that most people only get the chance to experience once if at all. They have dined their so many times that they take his food for granted and can’t remember a single dish they have eaten. They dine there for the status symbol it is. To basically leach off his own success.
The Business Men and their boss: Investors that think they own everything
The fact that the individual people in this group were embezzling funds and breaking the law really isn’t why they were there. They were there because of their behavior throughout the night. Working for the main investor in the restaurant gave them a false sense of control and ownership over the Chef and the food he served. Demanding that he go off menu, threating to close the place if they don’t get what they want. As the Chef explains that asking for substitutions on the menu is an insult to the art. And by killing his main investor he is finally free from their control.
The Celebrity:
This is the one character that a better reason to kill him and his assistant is the fact that he name drops the Chef like they were childhood friends when they don’t really know each other. The Chefs reason though for choosing him was because of his crappy performance that he gave in a movie that wasted the Chefs one day off. Its a little deeper than that though. Its because that performance was done by and artist like himself that has grown to hate his craft and seeing his face is a reminder of how the Chef himself hates his craft and has lost his passion for it.
The Foodie:
The Foodie is probably the most satisfying death in the movie. He is the biggest piece of shit of all the characters and his humiliations and resulting death was worth it. As we find out during the night Margot is a service provider as well. The Chef calls her out and knows that she is not a rich snob but a fellow “shit shoveler” as he calls it, a fellow server. And like him she admits that there was a time where she really did enjoy the service she provided but now does not. If its not clear what service that is, she is an escort. What we find out is that the only person at this dinner that knew what the entire plan was, knowing that everyone was going to die was the Foodie, and since his original date broke up with him he hired an escort to come with him because the restaurant doesn’t do single sittings. So he hired a complete stranger to die with him after having the meal he thought was worth dying for. The punch in face she gives him at this reveal is so deserved. Forcing him to cook a dish since he like to play at being chef and its resulting disaster is great as well. Its what we all wanted to do to our snobby foodie friends that can’t cook for shit but will tell you about technics they can’t even perform.
The Cheat Code
So Margot who is clearly not suppose to be there and is actually given a chance to escape does try to do the right thing and save everyone, but unfortunately that doesn’t work. She did discover a cheat code in the process and basically uses it to get out of the situation on her own. So I guess she tries to do the right thing but in the end can only save herself. Which at this point Ralph Fiennes gives one of his best performances ever. The change of character, the slight smile he gives as he makes her what he calls the best cheeseburger ever is great. You actually see this monster of man that was full of hatred and vile for everyone in the room change to smiling and enjoying and finding the desire to want to cook for someone again. She taste the burger and complements the Chef giving him the joy of cooking one last time before he ends his life, but she then ask if she can take it to go because she is full. That broke him. As a service provide he feels compelled to comply and gives her a to go box and a gift back and lets her leave. Understand the desire to serve and rules that servers follow got her out of the situation. Also earned her the respect of the Chef.
This movie is a fun ride of figuring out what is going on but its not laugh out loud funny like a black comedy would be, its not at all scary like a horror movie would be and the only satire is in the guest list but they are not really over acting except maybe the foodie, this guys doesn’t care about the danger he is in he just wants the chefs approval and to eat the food.
Verdict:
This is a great movie but hard to categorize as its almost just its own thing. The acting in it is great though and its rare to see such great scenes. As I said before you should just watch this film.