When I started watching this movie, I remembered that two or three days ago a good friend of mine, perhaps my best friend in many years, who is also my disciple and colleague (and who could be my great grandson), told me that he would love to have a way to nourish his body without having to eat all the processed food sold in restaurants and supermarkets, something like astronauts' "nutritive pills.
And I wondered, what am I doing watching a movie about a restaurateur who wants to win a Michelin star with the help of a ravishing brunette who becomes his associate, support and wife? I had my period in life when I would go to restaurants in Panamá and Cuba, where they would even charge you for breathing, to discover the pleasures of gastronomy, but right now I make do with less complicated dishes and fruits. However, the movie turned into a highly dramatic tale about family, betrayal, adultery, dysfunction, in a way that I am convinced that only Scandinavian filmmakers can accomplish. They are "cutting your veins" with the intensity of the drama, but everything runs smoothly, never letting your attention down, because they do it wonderfully.
The couple play little games of seduction, meeting in bars and secretly making love on the premises, but one night, during one of those encounters, a British guy from Michelin goes to their restaurant, and declines the dish of the house, because the chef in charge did not check the state of the fermented lemons used in the recipe. In seconds, everything turns to mess, and heads to possible bankruptcy, or closure, all because of a lemon. For a moment it seems that this is going to be the dramatic core of the story, but no, not at all.
The gastronomic incident opens the structure of the film. In that turning point, the movie guides us through the hard paths of a story that goes from present time to flashbacks that show how the man did not separate his profession from his roles as husband, lover and father, and in particular how he neglected his wife, when a suspicious mole appears on her skin. Biopsy, fear, the need to share the result of the test, and the husband's inaccessibility to listen to his wife, lead her to a restaurant worker who pays her too much attention... Complications mount and you have as main dish a complex situation in which love, family, business and resentment converge.
As I tell it, it may not sound very attractive, but do not be mistaken. The film's script is signed by Tobias Linholm, the talented man who has written several scripts for Thomas Vintenberg, such as «Submarino», «The Hunt»), «The Commune», and «Another Round,» as well as his own movies, «A Hijacking» (about Somali pirates), and «A War» (about a war crime in Afghanistan).
Be confident that you are in very good hands. It is not the typical film to disconnect us from those awfully dark transits of life or those somber dramas by Ingmar Bergman, but the ending is reassuring.
And I wondered, what am I doing watching a movie about a restaurateur who wants to win a Michelin star with the help of a ravishing brunette who becomes his associate, support and wife? I had my period in life when I would go to restaurants in Panamá and Cuba, where they would even charge you for breathing, to discover the pleasures of gastronomy, but right now I make do with less complicated dishes and fruits. However, the movie turned into a highly dramatic tale about family, betrayal, adultery, dysfunction, in a way that I am convinced that only Scandinavian filmmakers can accomplish. They are "cutting your veins" with the intensity of the drama, but everything runs smoothly, never letting your attention down, because they do it wonderfully.
The couple play little games of seduction, meeting in bars and secretly making love on the premises, but one night, during one of those encounters, a British guy from Michelin goes to their restaurant, and declines the dish of the house, because the chef in charge did not check the state of the fermented lemons used in the recipe. In seconds, everything turns to mess, and heads to possible bankruptcy, or closure, all because of a lemon. For a moment it seems that this is going to be the dramatic core of the story, but no, not at all.
The gastronomic incident opens the structure of the film. In that turning point, the movie guides us through the hard paths of a story that goes from present time to flashbacks that show how the man did not separate his profession from his roles as husband, lover and father, and in particular how he neglected his wife, when a suspicious mole appears on her skin. Biopsy, fear, the need to share the result of the test, and the husband's inaccessibility to listen to his wife, lead her to a restaurant worker who pays her too much attention... Complications mount and you have as main dish a complex situation in which love, family, business and resentment converge.
As I tell it, it may not sound very attractive, but do not be mistaken. The film's script is signed by Tobias Linholm, the talented man who has written several scripts for Thomas Vintenberg, such as «Submarino», «The Hunt»), «The Commune», and «Another Round,» as well as his own movies, «A Hijacking» (about Somali pirates), and «A War» (about a war crime in Afghanistan).
Be confident that you are in very good hands. It is not the typical film to disconnect us from those awfully dark transits of life or those somber dramas by Ingmar Bergman, but the ending is reassuring.