This is the first time a movie left me speechless and confused. I sat in silence for a few minutes thinking about what I just watched. I couldn't wrap my head around this movie and honestly up till now I am astounded.
Yes I have heard some positive reviews about this movie but I never expected it to be that wild. The story of 'The Menu' was told in a gripping way. You may think you have an idea of what is going to happen in the movie from the trailers, but then, it is not what you think. I will say this movie was a wild experience for me and left me jaw-dropping all the way till the end.
'The Menu' is a 2022 movie that was directed by Mark Mylod, written by Resiss and Tracy with Searchlight Pictures as the distributors. This movie is a wild American dark comedy horror which revolves around a couple who go to an exclusive Island restaurant where the chef has prepared an exquisite menu for them with shocking surprises. The movie starred Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Janet McTeer, John Leguizamo, Judith Light, Reed Birney, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, and Nicholas Hoult.
Little About The Plot.
The movie starts with a couple, Tyler and Margot with some other notable characters traveling on a boat to a private Island where there is an exclusive restaurant owned and operated by a celebrity chef, Julian Slowik in Hawthorn to partake in a lavish menu cooked by Julian and his cooks. The people arrived on the Island and they were given a tour of the Island by Elsa, the waiter captain who is the second in command to Julian. The guests that were to partake in the lavish Menu are all wealthy people and could afford to pay for the cost.
Elsa led all the guests into the restaurant where the lavish Menu was meant to be served. Julian began to serve several course meals and introduced each dish with a disturbing monologue which explains how he came up with the course meals and the components of the meals. As the dinner continues, Julian, a man skillful with food, uses the the dishes he made to further expose the secret of each guest ranging from fraud, deceit, embezzlement and affairs. This rattled the guests as they all began to realize there was something dark going on.
As Julian continued serving the guests, he later found out that, Tyler's plus one, Margot is not the designated guest for the evening. In between course meals, Julian reveals that the guests were all chosen because they either were the reason for him losing his passion for his craft and they make a living off exploiting the work of people like him. Things became tense as the guests began to fear for their safety, but it got all worse during the fourth course when a sous chef kills himself in front of the guests and that is when the wild aspect of this movie began.
The Cast.
This movie has one of the best casts I have seen recently and they all performed in a spectacular and customized way. So I will talk about three characters from the main cast here that got my attention and I will also avoid spoilers.
Fiennes as Chef Julian Slowik:
Julian's performance was fantastic and unpredictable. He was unpredictable in a way that you wouldn't see his next step. He was blunt, hard and at the same time he was able to bare his soul throughout the movie. He is the main antagonist and his way of life made him broken and feels underappreciated by the people whom he creates his art for. I must say he is the perfect antagonist for this movie.
Anya and Nicholas as Margot and Tyler: Margot acts as a person who's tastes in life are relatable. She was the only one smart enough to outrun Julian in his psychological games. Her performance was okay but then I think her character should have been explored more towards the ending. Nicholas on the other hand, I think he shouldn't have been included in the cast of this movie. His role was annoying and irritating to me. I was pissed with his performance and I don't know his relevance to the plot of this movie. I wished he wasn't casted for this movie.
Leguizamo as George Díaz: He was accompanied by his assistant and girlfriend to the Island for the lavish Menu. This man was my favorite character in the movie even though his role was a minor one. I enjoyed his performance. His presence and performance brought balance and stability into the plot of the movie. He was the comic relief of the movie and his mannerisms made me chuckle taking out the tension caused by some disturbing scenes. I appreciate his role in the movie.
What sets this movie apart from other thriller/horrors are the great performances of the cast. Every character here is well done and intelligently written. The entire cast gives great performances and purposely reflects a personality that we all encounter in life.
My Review And Rating.
The movie starts out as an eerie thriller/suspense movie with unique quirks, but then slowly diverts into something much more intense, wild and then goes too far in a disturbing way. This movie is a satirical thriller that uses strong performances from its actors to hike up the storyline of the movie into something quite interesting, fun and thrilling. The movie drops hints of what could happen next to increase suspense, but all the twists and turns all came from character-driven moments.
This movie isn't meant to be a sensible and satisfying thriller, but in the end became a movie that talks on the distressing phenomenon in our society today. For example; the way we criticize, view, consume, pursue, and obsess over those who produce the art around us and the 'class divide' (the disparity caused by wealth inequality).
The plot of this movie was written tightly but still with lots of potholes in my opinion. At one point in the movie I thought I was dealing with a paranormal or supernatural movie. Why did I say that? A scene in the movie, during the fourth course where a sous chef kills himself by slashing his throat made me have these questions: how did the chef convince the chef to kill himself? Does the chef have the power to control the human mind? What did he whisper in the chef's ear before he killed himself? I have some questions because at the end of this movie I realized this movie is dumb and shouldn't be produced in the first place but some of the themes this movie addressed which are related to our lives made me believe it's not a dumb movie.
Also an applause to the cinematographers and the director. They all did a fantastic job with the scene arrangements, the gore scenes, and the amazing actors that I forgot they were real life actors during the movie. Let's not forget the script writers! They brilliantly wrote the script in a way that not every writer could have pulled off. Rating this movie, I will give it 4 stars out 5 and I would recommend this movie to horror and thriller lovers. The Menu left me with a chill afterwards.
All images above are from the movie screenshots
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