As anyone who knows me well will readily confirm, I'm not one of the world's great gourmets. Far from it. Give me a steak and ale pie with chips and I'm happy; exotic cuisine (with some exceptions, admittedly!) leaves me cold. But on one of my recent flights, I was tempted to watch The Menu by the presence of Ralph Fiennes in the lead role. Fiennes is not only a very good actor, he has a great range: I find him appealing in all the different roles he undertakes. Though he's far from likeable in this one, playing the part of that most irritating of creatures, the egotistical celebrity chef.
The premise is simple. A group of people travel by boat to a small private island for a very special meal served up by celeb chef Julian Slowik (Fiennes) and his staff. The guests are, by and large, an unappealing bunch and it soon emerges that the apparent protagonist, Tyler Ledford (Nicholas Hoult), is accompanied by someone who was not his originally intended guest. This is Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy, who was so good in The Queen's Gambit, and who is another actor of high-calibre).
Slowik introduces each course of the dinner with a monologue - the contents of which become increasingly disturbing. There's a dramatic moment, probably the best in the whole film, where for the third course, tortillas are served which carry laser prints depicting regrettable aspects of the guests' lives. What on earth is going on?
This is a highly regarded black comedy horror film and it's certainly watchable, not least because of the quality of the lead actors. However, I feel that it's rather over-rated. The script struck me as pretty average, with a bit too much silliness, and if there was an explanation given as to why all Slowik's staff went along with his plan, it escaped me. A case of style over substance, like so many posh meals.
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