The Menu (2022)

Summary: A dozen people are collected at a snobby island restaurant, Hawthorne. Presided over by chef Julian Slowik. They include Tyler a foodie and his date, Margot, who he has hired for the occasion. Chef introduces each course with a bit of a story and it all seems to being according to plan until one of the staff shoots himself in the head in front of the guests. They think it may be a trick, until another guest has one of his fingers cut off, and as time passes each course introduced by chef, results in more weird stuff, and it appears that he is taking revenge on people who have dispeased him, including the financier of the restaurant who is seen being lowered into the lake to drown. We know how it will end, but will Margot, an innocent bystander, survive?

Content: No sex or nudity although there are sexual references. Everyone drinks wine, described by the sommelier as he pours. We see the guests travelling by boat to the island and are shown round. Some smoking in the lady’s lavatory. Each course introduced by a loud clap and a narrative from the chef, the courses do not look appetizing to we ordinary people. Tyler knows that everyone is to die but has not told his date. Margot, the date, gives the chef trouble since he has selected all the other guests, and we learn that she is an escort, as chef says, also providing a service. Some violence which is a bit unsettling.

A View: Nearly everyone has liked this film, and there are scenes which remain  in the mind after the closing credits. I suppose we have to go along with the idea that a whole bunch of catering people are prepared to die on instruction from the leader “chef”, but it is difficult to believe, and at the beginning of the film various landscapes and seascapes are shot, none of them really looking like the eventual location of the restaurant. Did the director think we wouldn’t notice?  So, despite the fact that I could not quite suspend my disbelief, I enjoyed the film and would quite like to see it again. Worth the price of admission.

Ralph Fiennes is well known for his appearance in films such as Harry Potter where he was Lord Voldemort and James Bond where he was M. He was also recently star of The Forgiven.