Burnt

Just a quick word on another film I watched recently. Set up as a cross between a culinary movie (a' la Chef or No Reservations) and the story of a gritty impassioned tale of one man's fall from grace and back again, Burnt stars bankable Hollywood star Bradley Cooper in that very role, backed up by an impressive cast list and made for a novel, if slightly flat concept at least.

We know Bradley Cooper can do a tortured, full on, unpredictable, yet likeable soul. And if you don't know - watch Silver Linings Playbook. His high-flying, perfectionist yet damaged chef Adam Jones certainly wasn't a horrible character, but the combination of ideas didn't hit home for me. The smug, arrogant and aloof nature Cooper got across well, and I even believed him as a culinary genius for the most part. But when he attempted to bring in the more human, and the more fragile elements into play...for me this time it just did not work. The result seemed to not only alienate Cooper's character from his co-stars but also from the audience and the film itself.
Alongside Bradley Cooper, the female lead was in the form of Sienna Miller. Again I have seen Sienna Miller deliver well in films, but in Burnt bad writing and clichés galore resulted in her screen time seemingly reduced to nothing but Brit-edge eye candy and a female version of Cooper's shouty chef.
Daniel Bruhl was actually a plus point for me. Very well pitched and easily watchable as hotel manager Tony. But again poor writing in trying to thrust an unrequited love of Cooper's character, plus not nearly enough screen time did not give rise to a potentially good character.
Even the injections of such renowned talents as Emma Thompson and a cameo from Uma Thurman failed to really lift Burnt. Don't get me wrong it was a huge surprise and joy to see them pop up, but once again very limited screen time, story impact and (especially in the case of Thompson) plot resonance seemed like a total waste of great acting talent, and also hints at a possible over-reliance on Hollywood names and a poorly conceived script.

In summary, to me Burnt was a watchable, quite enjoyable OK piece of culinary drama. Cooking films, especially grand-scale Hollywood cooking films are very hard to do I feel, and so too did it show here. I think the writers and producers of Burnt seemed to think a lot more grit, drama and humanity had been packed into the film than was actually the case - but poor script and execution rendered the result instead to be a rather sad, and indeed slightly disappointing shell of what could have been.