'The Menu' Serves Up Agatha Christie With A Twist
Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes, Nicholas Hoult
Rated R
Comedy, Thriller/Horror
Run time: 1 hr, 46 min
Directed by Mark Mylod
In theaters November 18, 2022
If you’re a fan of any of Agatha Christie’s stories, and you have a strong stomach, the Hawthorne may be worth a visit. Through the screen, anyways. I’d much rather not attend a dinner service there in person. In the theater, there’s a separation that allows the humor and the horror to have equal balance. If the trailer to this bizarre tale gave you genre whiplash, it expands tenfold in its final form. Somehow, I often found myself laughing during a scene that would normally have left me wincing or squeezing my eyes half closed. I wasn’t alone in that, either. This was one story I was glad to see play out with others who had also decided to spend their evening at Hawthorne.
This famed restaurant - only reachable by boat due to its remote setting on an island - offers an array of intrigue with a hint of vengeance and just a dash of justice. However, even the best laid menus can get tripped up by a wrench in plans, and that’s what Chef (Fiennes) discovers when his ultimate meal runs into an obstacle - an unexpected guest (Taylor-Joy). He’s thrown off, and despite it being a perfectly curated experience in his mind, the execution requires some adjustments. It becomes clear extremely early that this is no ordinary crowd of food snobs looking to sample some exorbitantly priced plates. Each and every one of them - except one - was there for a reason.
Taylor-Joy is Margot, a young woman brought to this restaurant by her super-foodie date Tyler (Hoult), and from the very beginning, she knows this isn’t going to be her cup of tea. Watching the reasons adding up in her mind as to just why this is not for her, and said reasons getting more and more alarming, was easily one of the highlights of the overall production. With a relatively small and contained cast, a static setting and no real costumes or props being changed out, it’s on Taylor-Joy to shine. And shine she does. I anticipated some easy chemistry between her and Hoult, but the tension and relationship that stood out most was between her and Fiennes. Isolated, the two male leads are caricatures, but through Margot, we have a window into someone - just anyone - acknowledging just how bizarre everything is.
As much fun as I had with this movie, I wish it hadn’t been quite so predictable. While there were absolutely a few twists and turns along the way, the overall outcome was far from shocking. The nonchalant attitude towards some astonishing moments that took place was undermined by the par-for-the-course plot structure. The visual conceit of highlighting the courses with their own feature as the night went on - including a description of the ingredients - brought the literal menu to life. It sounds so simple, but it often brought a moment of reset and a chance to breathe in between the suspenseful scenes. I’d get into more detailed descriptions of the way this meal is served, but some of these dishes are best kept under wraps. Chef requested that no pictures be taken, so I’ll assume that includes word pictures as well.