Chef

What is ​‘A Jon Favreau Film’ any­way? What are the com­mon traits, themes, motifs? A career of ser­vice­able block­busters (Iron Man, Elf) and doughy mat­inée efforts (Cow­boys & Aliens, Zathu­ra) sug­gests an indis­tinct, almost work­man­like direc­tor: a peren­ni­al­ly like­able but ordi­nary tal­ent, and a will­ing ser­vant of the stu­dio sys­tem. Has a main­stream film-mak­er oper­at­ing at this kind of mega-bucks lev­el ever evi­denced so lit­tle panache? Where’s the excite­ment? Where’s the soul?

With the release of aspi­ra­tional gas­tro com­e­dy Chef, it feels like we’re on the verge of an answer. It’s both a low-bud­get pas­sion project and an hon­est-to-good­ness crowd-pleas­er, fus­ing the culi­nary exot­i­ca of Big Night to the full-on nos­tal­gia foun­tain of Almost Famous. At last, Favreau cooks up one from the heart. With jokes. And unfea­si­bly glam­orous wives. And mouth-water­ing Cubanos sand­wich­es. Basi­cal­ly, for the first time in ages, he gets his pri­or­i­ties straight.

The film is pure whim­sy, and some­thing of a con­spic­u­ous metaphor for the director’s own pecu­liar career. Favreau stars as Carl Casper, a mav­er­ick head chef rest­ing on his lau­rels, serv­ing up per­fect­ly com­pe­tent but bland, unin­spir­ing food at a suc­cess­ful LA eatery. After a damn­ing review from noto­ri­ous restau­rant blog­ger Ram­sey Michel (Oliv­er Platt), Casper quits the kitchen and takes to the road, trav­el­ling across the US in a clapped-out food truck. His goal? Go back to his roots, reignite his pas­sion for cook­ing, and form a last­ing con­nec­tion with his estranged son, Per­cy (new­com­er Emjay Anthony).

Chef feels genet­i­cal­ly bond­ed to Favreau’s ear­li­er work, like the under­rat­ed gang­ster yarn Made, and the Doug Liman-direct­ed indie hit Swingers. Liman’s light touch clear­ly influ­ences Favreau here. He shoots restau­rants, kitchens and food trucks with the same after-hours, half-focussed glow that Liman brought to the LA/​Vegas netherworld.

But the film’s lo-fi style nev­er gets in the way of its wit­ty script and a swanky cast who knock out the lines with verve. It lacks any real sense of con­flict, and there’s an over-reliance on tried-and-test­ed road movie clichés, but who cares when the cast are hav­ing this much fun?

Favreau him­self is slow­ly turn­ing into a behe­moth of a man, and his gen­er­ous, depend­able pres­ence anchors the entire film. Else­where, John Leguizamo cranks up the folksi­ness as an unfea­si­bly loy­al sous chef who quits his job to hop aboard Favreau’s small-time odyssey. Dustin Hoff­man and Scar­lett Johans­son add a lit­tle Hol­ly­wood flavour to the mix, while twitchy old Robert Downey Jr pops up for a fun, if com­plete­ly unnec­es­sary cameo.

There are occa­sion­al tech­ni­cal glitch­es (spo­rad­i­cal­ly duff edit points, awk­ward fram­ing in a few of the key dia­logue scenes) but you get the impres­sion that Favreau doesn’t care about pro­fi­cien­cy as much as he does vibran­cy. It’s a film about being in the moment, and on that lev­el Chef deliv­ers. It’s a deli­cious, if rather ram­shackle treat that sets the con­trols for the heart of earnest­ness, stop­ping off for a light bite along the way.