I was not sure what to make from the synopsis of this film, due to it heavily relying on the two main characters, hopefully having more to say than just discussing the food, the wine and the ambiance. But the contradictory reviews convinced me to book tickets. Though a film full of dialogues can be fascinating, for example: Weekend (2011, Andrew Haigh); such are rare exceptions to the general rule. Talking heads let me doze off in most cases.
The trip itself was interesting due to magnificent views on landscapes and buildings spread through the northern parts of England. My company had been there as a tourist, and confirmed these to be really impressive. Some of the time we got the views as an unexpected bonus, while our main characters wanted to use their mobile phone but had problems in finding a good spot with quality reception inside.
The visited restaurants and served meals were treated as mere stage props and decors. For some moments we could have an ultra short look in some of the kitchens. The food itself was rarely discussed, not surprising since both main characters admitted their ignorance in this field. In one restaurant where an 8-course menu was served, the explanations by the waiter tended to turn into a parody, due to the rich details on the construction and the ingredients, precisely the same pompous language often appearing on menu's. But that was all about what could have been the main course (literally) of this film. The tone is set in the beginning of the tour, when fragments from restaurant reviews are read aloud and clearly shown to be contradictory, if not useless.
The main ingredients (so to speak) of the movie were the numerous imitations of well known actors, intermixed with many quotations of well known texts. I'm not a native speaker of the English language and hence not very well educated in English literature. Moreover, many of the copied actors were not immediately clear to me. Maybe given extra time I could have recognized more, but the story moved on. As a result, these parts of the movie were mostly lost upon me, contrary to others in the audience who apparently and loudly enjoyed themselves, probably while they were better able to spot actors and texts than I could.
Notwithstanding the two main characters having an obvious leading role in the story, their friends and colleagues also took part, albeit on a distance (via their mobile phones) or confined to some scenes (e.g. the photo shoot for a magazine). We could also observe the many differences between the two main characters, their careers and their very unequal family situations, the latter being perfectly wrapped up in the final coming home scenes. All this adds the necessary flesh to the story, otherwise it would leave us with only the imitations and the landscapes, these being not enough to fill the whole 107 minutes and keep our attention. All in all, the net result is a satisfactory score of 6 out of 10.
The trip itself was interesting due to magnificent views on landscapes and buildings spread through the northern parts of England. My company had been there as a tourist, and confirmed these to be really impressive. Some of the time we got the views as an unexpected bonus, while our main characters wanted to use their mobile phone but had problems in finding a good spot with quality reception inside.
The visited restaurants and served meals were treated as mere stage props and decors. For some moments we could have an ultra short look in some of the kitchens. The food itself was rarely discussed, not surprising since both main characters admitted their ignorance in this field. In one restaurant where an 8-course menu was served, the explanations by the waiter tended to turn into a parody, due to the rich details on the construction and the ingredients, precisely the same pompous language often appearing on menu's. But that was all about what could have been the main course (literally) of this film. The tone is set in the beginning of the tour, when fragments from restaurant reviews are read aloud and clearly shown to be contradictory, if not useless.
The main ingredients (so to speak) of the movie were the numerous imitations of well known actors, intermixed with many quotations of well known texts. I'm not a native speaker of the English language and hence not very well educated in English literature. Moreover, many of the copied actors were not immediately clear to me. Maybe given extra time I could have recognized more, but the story moved on. As a result, these parts of the movie were mostly lost upon me, contrary to others in the audience who apparently and loudly enjoyed themselves, probably while they were better able to spot actors and texts than I could.
Notwithstanding the two main characters having an obvious leading role in the story, their friends and colleagues also took part, albeit on a distance (via their mobile phones) or confined to some scenes (e.g. the photo shoot for a magazine). We could also observe the many differences between the two main characters, their careers and their very unequal family situations, the latter being perfectly wrapped up in the final coming home scenes. All this adds the necessary flesh to the story, otherwise it would leave us with only the imitations and the landscapes, these being not enough to fill the whole 107 minutes and keep our attention. All in all, the net result is a satisfactory score of 6 out of 10.