Steve Jobs looks like a candidate for sainthood next to the fictional chef in “Burnt.”
Adam Jones, played by Bradley Cooper, was a Michelin two-star chef in Paris until alcohol, drugs and loathsome behavior — stealing methadone from a dying sous chef, bedding and bailing on female colleagues, and releasing rats into a competitor’s new restaurant and then calling the health inspector — cost him his job and reputation.
He did penance in New Orleans and resurfaces in London as “Burnt” opens. Now clean and sober, he finagles his way into an old friend’s life, and aims to earn that third, coveted Michelin star.
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller.
Rating: R for language throughout.
Despite his epic collapse, up-and-comers are in awe — “If you’re a chef, he’s like the Rolling Stones” — and competitors are rattled to their core. But as Adam assembles a team, including talented chef and divorced mother Helene (Sienna Miller), his demons resurface, his temper flares like a gas burner cranked to high, and old friends and debt collectors reappear.
Directed by John Wells and written by Steven Knight, “Burnt” banks on moviegoers liking Mr. Cooper so much that they will tolerate his character’s dictatorial behavior, hurling of insults and food plates in the kitchen, and arrogance, which Adam insists is necessary to be a world-class chef.
Bread crumbs, or locally sourced ingredients, are dropped along the path, paving the way for confrontations, reconciliations and the redemption you know or hope is coming. Still, the story holds a few small surprises and turns on Mr. Cooper’s intensity, his chemistry with “American Sniper” co-star Sienna Miller and the portrait of the exhausting life in the chaotic, overheated kitchen where the only acceptable answer to a request or order is “Yes, chef!”
“Burnt” was shot in some top restaurants and kitchens in London, and used celebrity chefs Marcus Wareing and Mario Batali as consultants. Actors Daniel Bruhl, Emma Thompson, Omar Sy, Matthew Rhys, Alicia Vikander and Uma Thurman turn up in supporting roles, and so does the food, a parade of authentically prepared and exquisitely styled main courses and garnishes that pass in a blur. The action slows as a cake crowned by icing rosettes is actually sliced, consumed and savored.
Everything is heightened, from the rivalries between chefs to the quest for that third Michelin star and what it would represent. In the end, its lessons about teamwork, family and relying on others may not be original but they are satisfying.
Movie editor Barbara Vancheri: bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. Read her blog: www.post-gazette.com/madaboutmovies.
First Published: October 30, 2015, 4:00 a.m.