The Menu

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When examining all of its fancy garnishes and extravagant plating, reveals itself to be a movie built around exactly that: presentation. . You're overwhelmed with style, but the substance underneath isn't always as reliable. Mark Mylod's directorial effort follows a group of rich patrons who journey to a remote island to be wined and dined by a reclusive mystery chef whose methods are anything but ordinary.

The Menu is a sleek experience, helped by a reliable Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy's adaptable every-woman persona, which can slot her into almost any bizarre situation. . As a result, it kind of says something about how ignorant rich people can be, but in the end, it all feels vague and performative, much like the food they are being served.

This could be enough if it didn't feel like The Menu was constantly trying to probe the characters and what drives them whilst staying maddeningly distant from everyone. Effect without any cause can only get The Menu so far, and when it's asked to go that extra mile to justify anything that's happening beyond dull explanation, The Menu falls short of the impressive ingredients listed on its, well, menu.

As the guests arrive on the island to enjoy their food prepared by Fiennes' Julian Slowik, it doesn't take long to see the commentary on the rich culture and the world of fine dining that will be made. , both inside and outside his kitchen. The closed-off world of fine dining is filled with so much potential and would allow The Menu to explore what makes it seem so impenetrable. But the film rarely lets us behind the curtain, so instead, the viewer is stuck in the audience with the rest of the cast as Julian does his culinary performance, and we have to learn everything at their pace.

The Menu isn't interested in exploring why the guests are so fascinated with highbrow food beyond the dull sentiment that rich people like rich people's things. And so the film switches to a sort of thriller, and it works best in this mode when it embraces the inherent pulp of its premise. This is when the movie is at its most shocking because it feels like it's in on its silliness. . It doesn't achieve much beyond making the world feel as empty as it did when they sat down to eat.

This isn't to say that the cast doesn't work. It's always been impressive how Fiennes has been able to command so much of the screen without ever needing to say much. The Menu gives him another chance to do that, and when he is working from an unknowable distance from the protagonist, he feels menacing and unpredictable. He never lets the act slip; instead, he bends the power dynamic to target the individual guests while always staying in power.

He acts as a central point for everyone else to revolve around. . The Menu works best when Hoult cuts through the tension with awkward comedy, and he isn't afraid to look weak or foolish like all good character actors are. Anya Taylor-Joy gets less room to move, unfortunately, and is mostly trapped in the self-seriousness that The Menu ultimately prefers. She doesn't have enough to do to be a worthy opponent to Julian Slowik. Instead, she's just the not-rich person who sees through everything.

Mark Mylod's direction is caught somewhere in the middle between social realism and heightened thriller, and it doesn't really work. It doesn't feel that Mylod understands the tone of The Menu beyond the sinister, and when he does go for more bizarre moments, it feels too rooted in reality. When the thriller aspects come through as the guests try to escape, the rigid confinements of the island, which work well when trapped inside the restaurant, lose any semblance of claustrophobia or weight. It feels very traditional when, at times, The Menu begs for some spice. Mylod wants to trap his characters and make them feel like they can't get away, which he does, but when they try to run, the world loses the shape that it had previously built.

The Menu is far from a terrible movie, but it doesn't live up to what it could have been. As the final act comes to an end and the film ends, it doesn't feel like much has been accomplished, despite its obvious intentions to say something about snobbery. The Menu races to its conclusion at breakneck speeds and forces down the food it was still chewing to get there. Nothing is given the room to be savored beyond familiar beats of tension, and The Menu doesn't have that much to say. Ultimately, it's a movie that's disappointingly infilling, more content to simply stare at the food on the plate instead of tucking into it and seeing what it's made of.