'Chef' A Review

Chef is a feel good comedy from writer, director and star Jon Favreau. Favreau plays frustrated, over-worked, divorcee chef Carl Casper. In his LA restaurant he is forced by the owner to continue to make the same boring menu. After a biting review Casper has a major meltdown and is fired. He goes back to Miami with his ex-wife and son, buys a food truck, and travels back to LA with son in toe getting his groove back.

Across the board the performances are natural and engaging. Lead by Sofia Vergara as Favreau's kind and caring ex-wife and John Leguizamo as best-friend Martin. There is also two high impact cameos from Amy Sadaris and Robert Downey Jr. The humor in the film is very organic with few set-up punch-line type jokes but lots of laughs.

The back to basics story line is an obvious mirror of Favreau's own work, having not made something this paired down or with as much heart since his debut Swingers. The characters are real, the passion for food infectious, the chemistry bubbling. The film only makes one small misstep with a super-sweet too-good-to-be-believed ending but the wrap up is so quick you barely notice.

Sincere, genuine, and surprisingly funny.

See It.