Burnt - Review

Rating: 3 out of 5

JOHN Wells is no stranger to directing chaos, having been a showrunner, director and producer on medical drama ER. Here, he turns his attentions to another incendiary workplace, the kitchen, for a story about high end cuisine and an unstable chef.

A predecessor to The Bear, Burnt is a star-studded, high octane offering that's designed to offer a showcase for Bradley Cooper, while also offering an insight into a world where stress, abuse and unpleasantness co-exist with cooking brilliance. It names Gordon Ramsay as one of its executive producers and seems to be channelling his shouty energy throughout.

Upon its cinematic release, the film was panned by critics and ignored by audiences - a fate that, in hindsight, now seems a little harsh.

Yet while certainly not as bad as some reviews suggest, there is a fundamental flaw here that makes Burnt difficult to digest without suffering some kind of sour aftertaste. Its central character, Adam (as played by Cooper), is simply too unlikeable to really be worth rooting for.

Adam is a former masterchef who, quite literally, burnt his bridges while flying high in Paris some years before the story begins, amid a torrent of booze, drugs and women. He owes money to drug dealers, he has a list of former acquaintances who want to kill him and he has an ego that's still not in check.

Having served a self-prescribed penance shelling oysters in the US, Adam heads to London and sets his sights on reversing the fortunes of a flagging restaurant at the Langham Hotel, now overseen by former colleague and renowned maitre'd Tony (Daniel Bruhl). His aim is simple: to restore his own reputation and secure a coveted Michelin three-star rating.

In order to do so, he rounds up his own crew, which includes emerging talent and former colleagues, the most notable of whom include his former sous chef (Omar Sy, who may be bearing a grudge), and a single mom chef named Helene (Sienna Miller), who could potentially hold the key to unlocking his heart.

He must also attend regular counselling and drug testing sessions with a therapist (Emma Thompson), while keeping one step ahead of a renowned rival and fellow London restaurateur (Matthew Rhys). 

The resulting film is based on a script by Steven Knight (of Eastern Promises and Locke fame) that jumps from one flashpoint to another, while simultaneously attempting to whet our appetites for some of the cooking on display.

And to a certain extent, Burnt delivers on its promise of delivering an engaging kitchen drama populated by flawed characters, all trying to find their way in a competitive world that takes no prisoners.

Unfortunately, for those who have since witnessed The Bear, or other like-minded films such as Chef, the general nastiness on display here ultimately proves something of a turn-off. Cooper's Adam is a thug, as epitomised by one particularly demented sequence in which he tears down his staff after a disastrous opening night, humiliating and in one case assaulting them. It's a sequence designed to make the blood boil - yet one that is all too quickly forgiven within the context of the film.

But while building to the inevitable realisations that accompany Adam's journey towards some kind of success and forgiveness, in which he realises the value of seeking help and becoming part of a team, the transition from bully to supposed human being is too smooth.

Knight's screenplay hints at a troubled background, but never delves deeper. It's almost as if we're expected to accept Adam's antics because, at heart, he's a genius.

But then there's a pretentiousness surrounding some of the script too. When Adam attempts to recruit Helene by taking her to Burger King and calling her a snob for not wanting to dine, his points about the stability of fast food (which conveniently ignore the health defects) quickly seem hypocritical within the wider context of his own world and the people he's trying to impress.

The emotions on display are shallow. There's no real nourishment in Adam's journey. Supporting characters are there to serve Adam's journey without being given a credible arc of their own. The Bear, in the opening 40 minutes of its first episode, offered more complexity and depth.

Wells, for his part, succeeds in capturing the brutal intensity of a top tier kitchen, with all the stresses at play. And he keeps things watchable throughout, throwing in the odd twist that doesn't make all things inevitable. His cast is also too talented to make Burnt a complete bust. Thompson, for instance, is seemingly incapable of contributing a bad scene. While the likes of Miller, Sy and Rhys all somehow make their mark, leaving you wishing there was more of them. Even Bruhl shines, although his rose-tinted adoration for Adam becomes more than a little grating.

But in the final analysis, Burnt wastes too many of its ingredients. It's over-cooked, where a little more flavouring would have gone a long way.