The Menu
Celebrity chef Ralph Fiennes subjects his guests to an experience in conceptual dining in which each course is more surprising than the last.
It’s more than a menu – and it’s not just about the food. An evening chez Julian Slowik on his island retreat is designed to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Boasting a meticulously researched menu with a personalised angle for each guest, Slowik’s dinner is the perfect blend of theatre, presentation, taste and nutrition, drawing both on art and chemistry. Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) is an MC, magician and craftsman, obsessed with a higher purpose. “Don’t eat,” he charges his privileged diners. “Taste. Savour. Relish. Consider every morsel that you place inside your mouth. Be mindful. But do not eat. Our menu is too precious for that.” “After all,” he reminds his guests, “food is the raw material of life – and death.” Of course, there are a number of courses, each of which arrives with a narrative and a unique demonstration, presented with the flair of a military operation. Every detail has been micro-managed months in advance, so when Nicholas Hoult’s foodie Tyler brings an unexpected companion (Anya Taylor-Joy) to the table, Slowik is more than a little rattled. His priceless evening has been up-ended…
For sheer ingenuity, style and gruesome humour, Mimi Cave’s Fresh (2022) seemed a hard act to beat, yet The Menu is another perfectly balanced diet of the unexpected and the macabre. Conducting the proceedings with a theatrical relish, Ralph Fiennes delivers a masterclass in poker-faced bravura. Exhibiting both a command of his stage and a withering gaze levelled at any disapproving guest, he can sauté a syllable like few actors can, discharging the simple word “cook” like a firecracker. Fiennes has been lauded for his dramatic and Shakespearean roles, but his turns in In Bruges, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Hail, Caesar! are of a rare comic calibre. And as a spot-on counterpart is Hong Chau (Downsizing, The Whale), who, as Slowik’s right-hand man Elsa, manages to be simultaneously polite, poised and chilling, rustling up many of her laughs with her po-faced delivery (explaining the resort’s modus operandi to the baffled guests, she explains, “we harvest, we ferment, we slaughter, we marinate, we liquify, we spherify, we gel. We gel.”).
All this is exquisitely orchestrated by Mark Mylod (Succession) with a languorous artistry, as if guiding the viewer through the foyer of the Raffles in Singapore. It is a truth universally acknowledged that films about food are usually rather superior fare (Babette's Feast, Eat Drink Man Woman, Like Water For Chocolate, Boiling Point). With its flawlessly judged equilibrium of high-end intrigue and shock, The Menu brings the genre into a whole new arena, with notes of Fantasy Island, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and even Bong Joon-ho's Parasite. Bon appetit.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeer, Reed Birney, Judith Light, John Leguizamo, Paul Adelstein, Aimee Carrero, Arturo Castro, Rob Yang, Rebecca Koon, Peter Grosz, Mark St. Cyr, Adam Aalderks.
Dir Mark Mylod, Pro Adam McKay, Betsy Koch and Will Ferrell, Screenplay Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, Ph Peter Denning, Pro Des Ethan Tobman, Ed Christopher Tellefsen, Music Colin Stetson, Costumes Amy Westcott, Sound Rich Bologna, Dialect coach Michael Buster, Food stylist Kendall Gensler, Chief consultant Dominique Crenn.
Hyperobject Industries/Alienworx Productions/Gary Sanchez Productions-Searchlight Pictures. 107 mins. USA. 2022. UK and US Rel: 18 November 2022. Cert. 15.