THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY Trailer

The Hundred-Foot Journey is a movie about an Indian family who moved from India to France. They settle in a small village in France, charmed by an old restaurant. However, the owner of the French restaurant across the street, Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren) does not approve of the Indian restaurant opening and turns out to be quite the antagonist to the family. They have to find a way to get along despite their cultural differences.

The Hundred-Foot Journey is directed by Lasse Hallström and the script was written by Steven Knight, who is currently very much in the spotlights for his Locke. Other big names involved are Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, both attached as producers.

Let’s watch the trailer.

I always like to see movies where they attempt to blend cultures. I say attempt, as it doesn’t always work so well. A movie that did it well recently was Chinese Puzzle, where a French family moved to New York City, and despite the tired, predictable romance it was, its cultural observations were very interesting. It’s a fine line to walk: it’s just as easy to offend or ridicule a culture (which is what happened in Fading Gigolo). We will have to wait and see what The Hundred-Foot Journey does. I admire Steven Knight’s work, so I some faith it’ll work out.

However, it baffles me a little they cast the British Helen Mirren – as I see it, it would have been truer if they’d cast a Française like Juliette Binoche or Julie Delpy. I won’t discard Mirren’s work just yet, as in my opinion, she’s generally awesome.

This looks like it’s going to be a feel-good movie, spiced up with some romance and beautiful imagery of delicious food!

The Hundred-Foot Journey is scheduled to be released on August 8, 2014 in the U.S.A, on September 12 in the U.K.. Release dates of other countries around the world can be found here.

Are you going to see The Hundred-Foot Journey once it’s out? Any thoughts?