Burnt
Director: John Wells
Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Daniel Brühl
Duration: 101 mins
Class: PG15
KRS Releasing Ltd

Bradley Cooper’s foray into a restaurant kitchen in Burnt is served peppered with a soupcon of failure, having received a slew of bad reviews, summed up by review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes thus: “Burnt offers a few spoonfuls of compelling culinary drama, but they’re lost in a watery goulash dominated by an unsavoury main character and overdone clichés.”

It’s a slightly harsh verdict, for while Burnt has its flaws and squanders a lot of its potential, it rises from mediocrity into something perfectly watchable. This is mostly thanks to a winning performance from Bradley Cooper as bad boy chef Adam Jones whom we just can’t dislike as much as we ought to.

Adam is a successful Michelin-starred Paris-based chef whose self-destructive and drug-addled behaviour caused him to lose everything, including his friends and self-esteem.

Having been sober for a while and having also reacquainted himself with his culinary art by shucking one million oysters he attempts a comeback by moving to London, determined to prove himself once and for all to his peers – especially those rivals who thought he’d killed his career once and for all – by obtaining the elusive Michelin Three Stars.

It is a tale at whose root lies the life lesson of getting up after you fall, taking second chances and ultimately finding redemption, but it’s all a little too obvious and a tad unbelievable. There’s the way Jones, in all his arrogance, pretty much walks in and takes over a restaurant belonging to old friend; there’s the maitre’d Tony (the fussy but likeable Daniel Bruhl), who is a bit much to swallow; and the clashes and reconciliations with old rivals are tired.

All a little too obvious and a tad unbelievable

Thankfully, Cooper is on hand to add some much needed flavour and texture to the recipe. Adam’s is a role that the actor sinks his teeth into with his usual self-assurance, what with all the character’s charisma, anger and frequent temper tantrums. That said, while the story seems keen to draw heavy comparisons with real-life celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, on screen the character is too thinly-sketched by screenwriter Steven Knight, for Cooper to truly get under his skin. The actor only manages to wing it thanks to his effortless charm. He may have found more meat on the bones of the character had we seen more of him during his downward spiral, but the story starts as he is getting back into things, details exposited by way of Cooper’s opening voiceover.

In her second film with Cooper, Sienna Miller proves a worthy Helene, a chef in whom Adam recognises enormous potential – and one who thankfully takes no crap from him. Brilliant actresses Alicia Vikander and Emma Thompson are wasted in roles which may have added some much-needed complexity to the whole narrative had they been expanded – the former as the ex-girlfriend with whom Adam shared his hell-raising days; the latter as the therapist capable of telling Adam some harsh truths about himself.

There are some moments to savour, such as watching Cooper turn on the charm as he sets out to persuade former colleagues and new members to join him in this new venture is a delight.

Mouths will water at the plethora of exciting dishes we see prepared at manic speed as Adam gets to show off his remarkable skills in the kitchen with expertise, as he sets about sharpening his knives and his tongue – oftentimes to the accompaniment of some colourful cussing and the occasional hurling of plates at the wall. His waiters, sous-chefs and kitchen staff look on rather haplessly.