Movie Review: The Hundred Foot Journey

When I first saw this trailer, I thought, Helen Mirren, my mom is going to want to see this.  In addition to having the gifted Brit, the movie also featured an Indian family as the focus of the plot.  The story centers around an Indian family the emigrate to Europe after a catastrophe hits their family in Bombay (Mumbai).  After first settling in London, the father decides to move the family elsewhere, settling on a French village, across from a very well-to-do restaurant.

The family is not accustomed to life in Europe and while the children urge their father not to be foolish, he stubbornly refuses their please and opens an Indian restaurant across from the ritzy French restaurant.  There is a great deal of tension between the two establishments and the plot shows the French restaurant being very unwelcoming, at one point attacking the Indian restaurant.

The movie was light-hearted at times and serious at other times, all in equal measure.  Mirren was outstanding, as usual, her French accent perfect.  The Indian family was very easy to identify with, more so because I’m Indian and I took my mom to see the movie.  If you speak Hindi at all, there are a lot of little comments made by the dad that enhance the movie.  While I felt like the plot was weighed down unnecessarily by romance, the story was strong on its own without it.  The love story between two of the younger actors was really not adding much to the story and the movie ran long, as if it could have ended a good fifteen minutes earlier.  It is a fun movie.  For $7, I felt like I got my money’s worth.