The Menu

The best aspect of most independent films is that they are typically original in their concept and executed with amazing finesse. As with the case of "The Menu", while having a fresh and original concept, the execution could've been a bit more polished, in that some things weren't explained.

A young couple, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) travel to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef, Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) and his staff has prepared a lavish menu with some shocking surprises. The patron list is a who's who: an actor (John Leguizamo), a food critic, Lillian Bloom (Janet McTeer), and a head of staff, Elsa (Hong Chau) who definitely puts the 'I' in intensity. 

Others to round out the cast are Judith Light as Anne, Reed Birney as Richard, Paul Adelstein as Ted, Aimee Carrero as Felicity, Arturo Castro as Soren, Mark St. Cyr as Dave and Rob Yang as Bryce.

This was directed with such subtle intensity by Mark Mylod ("All G Indahouse" '02, "The Big White" '05, "The Royle Family: The New Sofa" (TV movie) '08, "Washingtonienne" (TV movie) '09, "What's Your Number?" '11) plus TV and shorts. This filmmaker truly was able to extract just the accurate amount of intensity within the characters so they neither came across as terrified necessarily nor weren't under-played so the audience would still see the potential peril these patrons would, or could, receive. This was executed well by writers Seth Reiss (TV and shorts) and Will Tracy (TV). Obviously, by reading the above resumes, neither of these writers have any feature film experience, however, considering this aspect, the script was crisp and concise. The fact both of them have extensive TV and/or short experience certainly paved the way in their ability to create an interesting story--they simply need more feature film writing. There were definitely a number of places in the script that simply were not explained, especially in places that could have helped with the screenplay. I could mention a few places, but so not to give any spoil alerts, suffice it to say, if the audience knew of these omitted places, there would have been a bit more understanding with certain characters. Where the character development became sharp was that between the chef and Margot. It took time to build, however after a certain point, one could tell that they were playing a 'cat and mouse' game and knew exactly where each were coming from. This was the best part of the screenplay. Fiennes gives his usual fine performance, however Taylor-Joy was stunning in her role as well. 

If you like films that become great fodder for psychological character studies, look no farther. This film would give any psychologist a field since just about everyone in this film was disturbed. It was well directed, photographed and edited, and leaves you with a basic bittersweet ending not to throw you off. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                                 Rated: R                                         105mins.