It's difficult to know what to make of this film. The posh end of the restaurant market is a huge target, and a very easy one. The film is billed as a thriller, or horror and it has some jokes, more towards the beginning, and they're not that funny to be sure. Critics favour The Menu as a crude allegory of the eternal struggle between the privileged and the rest of us. If this is what the film is, then it's beautifully shot, well acted tosh with a very unpleasant, irresponsible use of suicide as a dramatic device. In which case 2/10. However, perhaps the film is better than that, could our chef be Putin? Could the allegory be about despots and their cynical misuse of power?
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| Photo Searchlight Pictures. |
And are such despots prepared to destroy themselves as well as everyone and everything in their and our worlds in a final grand gesture? If this is the allegory then I like this film a whole lot more, surely this must be what was intended?
