There’s two breeds of films: movies you gotta think about, and movies you don’t gotta think about. Sometimes you want to sit and pay attention and enjoy the colors and characters and metaphors and themes, but sometimes you just want pretty people to talk at you. Burnt was the latter, but didn’t really know it.
Wherein I struggle to avoid temperature-based puns while discussing a movie named Burnt
The film Burnt stars an all-star cast of Bradley Cooper and Alicia Vikander and Daniel Bruhl and Emma Thompson and Uma Thurman- most of whom are relegated to smaller roles with likely the least amount of screen time needed to get their name on the poster. Everyone is just fine in their roles. Nothing crazy, nothing unique. Just ok. Even Bradley Cooper’s ‘he’s a messy, hunky, quick-witted main character’ charisma couldn’t elevate the cast, but even then, that’s totally ok. I don’t think we needed him to.
The cinematography is nothing at all to speak of, the soundtrack felt like a palette of agreeable sounds that didn’t upstage Cooper, and I’m not really sure if there was a takeaway at the end of the movie. The latter point ties in with the fact that the whole story itself was very safe. It was very textbook, very by-the-book. The down-on-his-luck genius-who-doesn’t-know it-but-kind-of-does protagonist is given a chance to prove himself while battling his addiction demons. He falls in love with the pretty blonde, he’s good with kids. There’s a snag in the journey, then he’s validated by his rival, given another chance, and he accomplishes his goal and joins the table with his kitchen crew. Roll credits.
Remember when I didn’t really like The Menu, or when I spent four thousand words talking about Black Swan? Remember all the fanfare that Whiplash and The Fighter got? Do you know why the Rocky movies and The Karate Kid movies were so damn popular? The common theme, the common, unnamed genre between these films is what I’d like to call Contest Movies.
Wherein I Invent a Movie Genre
Contest movies are films that have a clear-cut, measurable, competitive goal that the protagonist wants to accomplish, and must also succeed at overcoming whatever personal growth they need to actually win whatever contest they’re competing in. The Karate Kid and Rocky is about the kid winning a boxing match- you either win or you lose. It’s why Million Dollar Baby and Real Steel were so interesting, even though they were the same types of movie. They provided a unique, interesting twist to the boxing contest subgenre. Whiplash and Black Swan are contest films about some form of performance art, and do a great job of really digging into the desperation, pain, and trauma that competing at such a high level can cause.
So when we tune into a food contest movies like Chef or The Menu, we know what’s to come, but we hope to see something new. People really liked The Menu, because it was presented as a food contest film, but ended up being a sort of thriller. I don’t think it really found its footing or message, and fell flat for me. Chef went with a more character-insert route, and, similar to Burnt, slid into a finale that felt far too generous and gratuitous, but was still a fun watch because it was a character movie that made you hungry.
Burnt, as with the above cases, we have our contest set: Bradley Cooper wants three Michelin stars. Got it. The guy had trouble with substances in the past, but he’s now clean. Got it. He can’t womanize. Done. So what’s he need to do to actually accomplish this goal? Does he need to innovate his techniques? Does he need to go back to roots? Does he need to stop thinking of public approval as a standard of validation? Does he need to make amends with his past? Who knows?! It’s a bit of everything!
I think that the central theme, as overtly mentioned once or twice in the movie, was that Cooper needs to ‘work together’ and ‘rely on other people’.
Which. Huh?
It’s not like Cooper’s character necessarily struggled with that at all. The whole first act was him running around assembling a team for his restaurant, asking for help and favors. He was a dick, sure, but he was asking for help from his friends and partners and past contacts. Near the end of the first act, he even accepts that he needs to try new techniques at the direction of the blonde he later bangs. Then the climax hand-delivers a series of victories that really didn’t have any bearing on whether or not he was relying on other people.
His old flame pays off his debts- unasked. His maître d’hôtel overlooks his relapse and allows him to keep working. His new blonde flame… not sure what she does. The kitchen crew does pretty much what they’d been doing the whole time- they made some food. Cooper doesn’t micromanage this time, but the climactic moment is no different than a similar scene earlier, wherein his downfall was actually due to him… trusting his sous-chef to handle his portion of the dish.
Wherein I admit this review might have been a waste of everyone’s time
Look, I know I’m whining about a movie that I knew, and admitted, was not going to be a very deep movie. It honestly was the perfect thing to have playing in the background while I made 28 origami kite birthday decorations. I was just hoping it was a bit more than that once we got to the second act. I really didn’t like the ending, but you may!
YMMV.
I saw Burnt on Netflix.
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