Michael Hann 

The Hundred-Foot Journey review – curry-joint drama dishes up the cliches

Helen Mirren plays the owner of a posh restaurant in the south of France who is outraged when a curry house opens nearby
  
  

Charlotte Le Bon and Helen Mirren in The Hundred-Foot Journey
Cooking up trouble … Charlotte Le Bon and Helen Mirren in The Hundred-Foot Journey. Photograph: Walt Disney/Rex Photograph: Walt Disney/Rex

An Indian restaurateur and his family flee communal violence in Mumbai ("some election or other," the voice-over glibly informs us), and pitch up in southern France, where they open a gaudy curry joint opposite the local Michelin-starred swank house. Om Puri is the patriarch who finds himself at war with Helen Mirren, playing the outraged owner of the posh place, while Manish Dayal – the son with the golden fingers and tastebuds – and Charlotte Le Bon's eyes meet across the wild cèpes. You can guess the rest. Will the Indian family's zest for life melt Mirren's glacial heart? Will their spices change her view of food? Will Franglais – "I wish to make a complaint, officialement!" – be spoken? Cliche piles on cliche, but it's good-natured, undemanding fun.

 

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