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Thursday, June 23, 2016

Burnt (2015)

Bradley Cooper does a remarkably good job of capturing the personality and pathology of an elite chef.  Cooper plays Adam Jones, a chef who crashed and burned on drugs, alcohol, self agrandizing and debt.  Prior to all that he was a 2 Michelin star chef in a Paris restaurant with many talented people who all currently hate him.  After his ignomious departure he does a period of self-imposed penance in New Orleans, shucking literally a million oysters.  Seriously, he keeps count on a daily basis, and at his millionth oyster he takes off his apron, leaves the restaurant and goes to London, where he somewhat obnoxiously foists himself on an old friend and supporter who agrees to let him cook there.  The thing that is at once painful to watch and strikes me as accurate is just how self absorbed he is.  When things go wrong he literally throws things and trashed food.  His verbal abuse of his staff is shocking.  And either Bradley Cooper is truly a through and through asshole or a great actor because these scenes are cringe worthy they seem so real.  The ending is a bit tied up in a bow but I did enjoy the movie.

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