REVIEW: The Menu [2022]

December 17, 2022

2–3 minutes

Mark Mylod, Searchlight Pictures, The Menu

Rating: R | Runtime: 107 minutes
Release Date: November 18th, 2022 (USA)
Studio: Searchlight Pictures
Director(s): Mark Mylod
Writer(s): Seth Reiss & Will Tracy

You will eat less than you desire and more than you deserve.

Every time Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) claps his hands to mark a new course, the entire dining room jumps in fright. And that’s before they discover they should be afraid. Because this exorbitantly-priced, exclusive seat at Hawthorne comes with a twist … but I’ll leave that to director Mark Mylod and screenwriters Seth Reiss and Will Tracy since the reveal proves an unforgettable moment of confusion insofar as believing whether what we’ve seen is real or part of the show. We want to assume the latter due to the theatricality and surreal absurdity of it all. Yet the longer we stay with these characters (guests and chefs alike), the more we understand that intent is everything.

The Menu delivers a brilliant tonal mix of suspense thrills and humor considering how meticulously matter-of-fact the inevitable horrors and woefully up-their-own-asses the clientele prove. Between the table of “bros” (Arturo Castro, Rob Yang, and Mark St. Cyr), the washed up actor (John Leguizamo) name-dropping the chef as a personal friend, the elitist critic (Janet McTeer) and her editor (Paul Adelstein), and the aging couple (Reed Birney and Judith Light) treating this apparently magical (and bank-busting) event like just another Tuesday, there’s plenty of fodder for kitchen vs. customer antics. Restaurant host Elsa (Hong Chau) is only happy to comply.

But there’s also the pathologically oblivious Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and his date Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy). He’s practically orgasmic the minute they land on the private island knowing his palette will shortly be tasting the world’s greatest food. She couldn’t care less because she was a last-minute addition—one that has thrown Slowik and his staff for a loop. The reason is crucial to the insanity to come and her background methodically constructed to allow the expository themes of service industry rage to grab a foothold for their explanation rather than merely screaming it into a void populated by those immune to its point.

Is the whole a bit too perfect in its plotting as a result? Perhaps. That precision is actually one of the best parts of the first hour considering how much comedy is born from it. Fiennes, Chau, and the restaurant staff are impeccable in their deadpan deliveries to offset the mounting frustration and shock their actions provoke from the “eaters.” This juxtaposition is so good that the whole suffers a bit when the truth of what’s happening and Margot’s presence are finally reconciled. The third act proves somewhat rushed and messy, the joke finding its limits with apparently nowhere to go. Thankfully, however, Mylod and company do stick the landing, pivoting back to cold, calculating finality with just a hint of earned (albeit conveniently) compassion.