If you’ve watched this movie and loved it …

A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

Frens, foes, bros and sissies, I’ve got a confession to make: I’m probably the only person on the planet who didn’t love The Menu to pieces, the only one who won’t sing its praises. Because this movie did almost everything right, and technically I don’t have much to complain about neither, so this usually is a reason to keep my reviews short.

I hope I can keep this one short as well and you’ll understand my left field opinion quickly.

My problem with The Menu is a very fundamental one, I didn’t like the premise. The Menu is hailed as a biting satire. Sorry but I can’t see that in this film. I don’t see what the director and the writers tried to satirize here. The whole setup is far removed from reality and the characters are nothing but hollow cartoon figures, not real human beings we’d love to see suffer from the satire’s consequences.

I don’t understand Chef’s motivation, I don’t understand any of the patrons’ and staff’s actions and reactions. In short, I didn’t get the whole idea of this movie. 😦

Now I understand people telling me “it’s over the top satire.”

Yes, ok. Over the top of what? That whole thing has no base, isn’t grounded in reality. I can’t feel what the figures feel, can’t care about them. I couldn’t give less fux when the restaurant blew up in the end and took all the patrons and cooks with them to a fiery grave.

They all kinda accepted their faith. 😦 WTF???

Well, all but the inevitable Anya Taylor-Joy, who got away coz she was the only halfways believable, un-pretentious human being in the whole play. The hooker with a heart. And that’s hard to achieve if you yourself look like a RL anime character, isn’t it? So I sing her praises. Same as all the other cast; they all did very well, no complaints about that. Ralph Fiennes, John Leguizamo and Nicholas Hoult did particularly well.

I just couldn’t care one way or the other. They, respectively their characters and stories, didn’t touch me.

Then there was the food that was served. For me nothing looked appealing or appetizing. Only the burger Anya ordered towards the end, the real food, got my juices flowing. So, yes, I can understand if this was supposed to be a satire on over-the-top pretentiousness, silly resto trends, pointless consumerism. I just think they could’ve achieved it much better with more realistic characters and a setting based in reality.

CONCLUSION: With all the style and pretentiousness The Menu isn’t real sustenance but all empty calories.

Not seen The Menu yet? Here:

Interpretations:

Now I’ve given you all the ammunition you need to convince me that The Menu is actually a great movie. Go! Go! Go!