BURNT – The Review

By Cate Marquis

With the success of last summer’s surprise hit CHEF, it was inevitable there would be more movies about professional cooking. The nation seems obsessed with chefs right now, and shows about professional cooking and kitchens dominate TV programming. BURNT stars Bradley Cooper as a once successful chef at a top Paris restaurant, who lost it all and is now trying for a comeback, with the help of sous chef Sienna Miller. But while CHEF charmed audiences with a look into how real professional kitchens work, BURNT goes another route – the reality-show version where temper tantrums trump actual cooking. Those who love chef Gordon Ramsay’s screaming antics will be entertained by BURNT’s over-the-top kitchen melodrama. In fact, Ramsey coached Cooper for the film.

Cooper plays Adam Jones, a talented but hot-tempered young chef who ran his own Paris restaurant and earned two coveted Michelin stars before flaming out over alcohol and drug addiction, leaving a swath of broken friendships in his wake. Now sober and drug-free, Jones is in London, trying to stage a comeback to try for a third Michelin star. The question is whether he can find anyone to finance a restaurant for him, or talented staff willing to work for him, given his disastrous reputation. Despite past betrayals, he earns the backing of hotel-owner Tony (Daniel Bruhl) and recruits a team of former restaurant staff, plus a rising young sous chef Helene (Sienna Miller). Meanwhile, Jones has to contend with an old rival Reese (Mathew Rhys), whose restaurant boasts a high-tech approach to cooking verses Jones’ more traditional style. Supporting roles are also played by Emma Thompson, Uma Thurman, Alicia Vikander, Omar Sy, Lily James and Sam Keeley.

The film is being billed as a kind of romantic comedy about second chances. There is very little comedy in this tale, and not that much romance. Adam is such a jerk and has done such awful things to his former co-workers, so it is amazing anyone wants to give him a second chance when he suddenly turns up in London. At most, you would expect a restauranteur to take him on as a cook, or sous chef, in their kitchen until he proved himself reliable again. Instead, someone finances a new restaurant for him. It seems all he has to do is smile and sparkle his blue eyes.

As the wife of a former chef and one-time restaurant owner, this reviewer recognizes that director John Wells gets lots of restaurant world details right. BURNT takes us inside some gorgeous restaurants and tricked-out kitchens, and serves up some wonderful looking dishes, with a view of the hot London restaurant scene. While the film gets little details about presentation and trends in cooking right, it misses the bigger picture of how real restaurants run. Good professional kitchens have the speed and controlled chaos of a busy hospital emergency room – abrupt, brusque, business-like – but with surprisingly few of those emotional meltdowns that play so well on TV. Sometimes, you see that in BURNT – and clearly the cast trained and these scenes also feature some real kitchen staff – but too often it is all about the screaming. The kitchen staff working at full-blast was one of the things CHEF got so right, as well as the camaraderie after the kitchen closes for the night. There is none of that bonding of the workplace here in BURNT’s reality-show kitchen.

Actually, it is not just the kitchen that rings false in BURNT. While this film has a good cast, pretty restaurant locations and plenty of shots of luscious food, it is far more style than substance. The whole enfant terrible star who fell and is staging a comeback is a familiar trope, whether the fallen star is in music, movies, or cooking. Everything about this story is familiar – the ex-friend wooed back, the burned backer who decides to take another chance on the star, the egoism and lessons still to learn, the new romance. The story contrives some heated rivalry between Cooper’s Jones and fellow chef … over style of cooking – “cook my way or else” – while real chefs might just disagree. When Jones garners a good review, his rival destroys his own restaurant in one of those artistic tantrum scenes movies love – and which would never really happen unless the chef wanted to be fired and maybe sued by his backers. But it sure makes a nice mess.

BURNT missed an opportunity for a real-world glimpse inside professional cooking and the ones who are really burned in this film are audience members hoping to taste something fresh and real. BURNT is a dish that should be sent back.

BURNT opens in theaters October 30, 2015.

OVERALL RATING: 2 OUT OF 5 STARS