Film Reviews

What's Cooking

• Rating:
• Director: Gurinder Chadha.
• Starring: Mercedes Ruehl, Victors Rivers, Douglas Spain, A Martinez, Joan Chen, François Chau, Will Yun Lee, Lainie Kazan, Kyra Sedgwick, Julianna Margulies.
• Details: US / 106 mins / (12PG).

Dialogue heavy, ambitious but ultimately reasonably successful comedy drama set around four families over the course of a particularly tumultuous Thanksgiving. Although the premise of quarrelling families at Thanksgiving has been investigated several times previous - most notably in Home for the Holidays - Gurinder Chadha's second feature is still infused with a rich, if slightly overcooked (sorry) sense of dramatics and humour. It's in the exchanges between the central players at the dinner table that provides What's Cooking? with its best moments, even if they have a slightly familiar ring to them. Still, Chanda's decision to provide the four main families with diverse ethnic backgrounds without stereotyping gives the movie an unsentimental air. Well worth a look.

Review by Garreth Murphy