Is there really any appetite for a movie about an obnoxiously sweary chef (so 00s) that leaves you cooking up naff culinary gags about how the dramatic souffle never rises and, instead, ends up a bit of a pudding?
Manic Bradley Cooper is Adam Jones, a former addict who’s fled Paris for London (via a million shucked oysters), where he plans to rebuild his life and reputation. Rounding up a crew old and new (Omar Sy’s formerly scorned Michel, Sienna Miller’s convincingly feisty single mum Helene), Adam raises flambeed hell in the kitchen while waiting for the Michelin-starred hammer to fall.
Steven Knight’s screenplay gives our charmless plate smasher plenty to fret about (debt-collecting drug dealers, rival chefs, spurned lovers etc) while the supporting cast boasts underused A-listers such as Alicia Vikander, Emma Thompson, Uma Thurman and Daniel Brühl. With ingredients like these, whisked together by August: Osage County director John Wells, Burnt should have been a spicy treat. Instead, it comes and goes like so much fast food, leaving you hungry for a late-night DVD snack of Jon Favreau’s more palatable Chef, the existence of which precipitated the first of two title changes (it was also known, for a while, as Adam Jones) to this overegged, undercooked hotchpotch production.’
- This article was amended on 8 November to replace the incorrect lead photograph.
