Chef

Written, directed and produced by Jon Favreau, Chef did not live up to my expectations.  It surpassed them.  This is a movie that follows the decline and rise again of the career of chef Carl Casper played by Jon Favreau.  Favs actually managed to get me to like Sofia Vergara which is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Everything starts to fall apart for Carl when he receives a mediocre (at best) review from food critic Ramsey Michel who is played by the wonderful Oliver Platt.  That man is and forever shall be, in my opinion, the best Porthos in the history and future of Three Muskateers movies, but I digress.

With an all star cast which included Dustin Hoffman, Scarlet Johansson, John Leguizamo, and Robert Downey Jr, I honestly believed this movie would be good before I even bought the tickets.  I was wrong.  The movie is great.  It touches your heart in ways that I never thought a movie about food could.

John Leguizamo made my life in this movie.  I love it when he plays characters like this.  I feel like you get to see a side of him that he rarely lets out.

As for Marvin, played by Robert Downey Jr.  There could not have been a more perfect part for Mr. Downey.  I thoroughly believe that it was really just Robert showing up and being himself.  Marvin is off the wall and erratic and weird and that's the impression I get of Robert when he's not playing Tony Stark.  Or should I say Tony Stark when he's trying to convince everyone that he's really Robert Downey Jr?

Like the many fine meals that were prepared therein, this movie is a masterpiece.  If you love cooking, or even if you just love food, go see this movie.  I really did enjoy every minute of it.  And I loved the integration of social media into the film.  Gave it a real world vibe that you don't see much anymore.

Thank you, Jon Favreau, for making this movie and thanks to the people that helped bring it to theaters.  I will certainly be buying it when it becomes available.

And do stay for the credits.  There's a little behind the scenes moment right before the very end that is definitely worth the wait.