Some directors have such a distinctive style that we should name a subgenre after them. As with the subgenres known as ‘Wes Anderson films’ or ‘Woody Allen pictures,’ I can (almost) always tell when I’m watching a Lasse Hallström film. Hallström is the director of over 30 films, whose name may not be familiar, but whose films are: Chocolat, Safe Haven, The Cider House Rules, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, and my favorite of the lot, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Most viewers probably would be surprised to know a Swedish man made them, all of them feeling quite American and nothing at all like, say, a Bergman film.
Hallström’s films can be defined either as ‘platonic dramedy’ or ‘romantic (roblandtic?) melodramas.’ Using major stars like Robert Redford, Richard Gere, Judi Dench, and Johnny Depp, Hallström takes popular novels and makes pleasant pictures out of them, adding a dash of obvious character development (the cold-hearted woman must remember her former kind self, the grouch must be won over by acts of kindness, etc…), cultural sensitivity training, and an innocent romantic subplot. The films are designed to be inspiring, nodding to contemporary liberal attitudes but never enough to offend the Midwestern audience that is crucial to good box-office numbers. The dialogue is always cute, plot points are always resolved, the turning points can usually be spotted a mile away, and the climaxes are engineered to make the average moviegoer a little weepy and have my grandmother give her ultimate recommendation, “Oh, that was so cute!”
Hallström’s latest movie, The Hundred-Foot Journey, is based on (of course) a ‘charming novel,’ as it’s described on Amazon, by Richard C. Morais. The story involves an Indian family that comes to Europe and has a meet-cute with a perfect, quaint French village. The family, led by strong-willed Papa, decides to set up shop in an abandoned restaurant across the way from one of the best restaurants in France. This sets up tension between Papa and the restaurant’s stiff proprietor, Madame Mallory, as well as the young chefs Hassan and Marguerite. The food scenes are enticing and the acting is good, particularly by the magnificent Helen Mirren and relative newcomer Manish Dayal. Charlotte Le Bon, the French look-alike of a young Wynona Rider, steals quite a few scenes as Marguerite.
At the core of the film is the relevant issue of immigration. That the film takes place in France is not coincidental, with its history of Algerian and Muslim conflict, and the deepest insight the film has is in examining the words to the French national anthem and the connected xenophobia. But, not to be bogged down in politics and philosophy, the film quickly moves on to how we can get along with people who are so different from us by simply seeing the giftedness and humanity in others. The requisite baptism scene where Mirren’s character goes out into the rain to make amends toward the Indian newcomers is simplistic, but effective.
The cinematography by Linus Sandren is lush and picture perfect, as with most Hallström pictures, making us wish we lived in their idyllic settings. While bad things happen and bad people do exist on the outskirts of the film, ultimately good people learn to do good things through circumstances that seem to be guided by a benevolent spirit. The Hundred-Foot Journey is the cinematic equivalent of a Thomas Kinkade painting. If that’s your cup of tea then this might be your movie.
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