Butler's Cinema Scene

Bradley Cooper

“BURNT” My rating: C+ (Opens wide on Oct. 30)

100 minutes | MPAA rating: R

There’s plenty of gastro porn on display in “Burnt”: fruits and veggies exploding in vibrant colors, lusciously marbled meats, clouds of steam and rings of blue flame, plates of edibles arranged with the precision/happy chaos of a modernist painting.

In most other regards director John Wells’ film about a megalomaniacal chef working his way toward redemption is standard-issue stuff. Yeah, it accurately captures the politics and pecking order of a high-end restaurant kitchen (as did the recent sleeper hit “Chef”).

But the big story, the big drama, never materializes.

The film has an invaluable asset in Bradley Cooper, who even when playing a dick oozes charisma. But this yarn (screenplay by Steven Knight, story by Michael Kalesniko) relies too much on stock characters and time-tested dramatic devices without ever digging deep.

Adam Jones (Cooper) is a once-acclaimed chef at a top Paris restaurant. But his career ran aground on drugs, drink and women (a common-enough narrative among this breed) and he retreated to New Orleans where he got sober, gave up sleeping around, and got a lowly job shucking oysters.  After working his way through exactly 1 million of the mollusks (he kept meticulous records of his shucking activities) Adam walked out the door and caught a flight to London.

Sienna Miller

Now– despite having long ago burned all his professional bridges — he’s prepared to start all over. Adam’s all-consuming goal is to win a coveted three-star rating from the Michelin folks, and he will merciless drive those around him to see that happen.

Adam is an ego on steroids, capable of savage cruelty and even a dirty trick or two on the competition. Nothing or no one had best get in his way.

Among the strong supporting cast are Daniel Bruhl as an old friend and past partner who uses his family money to underwrite Adam’s new eatery, Sienna Miller as the chef and single mom who becomes his second in command (and tentative love interest), Omar Sy as one of Adam’s Paris victims who puts his animosity on hold and goes to work for his old nemesis, Matthew Rhys as a competing London chef, Emma Thompson as a shrink who monitors Adam’s sobriety, Uma Thurman as a powerful food critic, and Alicia Vikander as an old flame.

They’re all fine despite playing cliched and often painfully undeveloped characters.

And as previously mentioned, Cooper is always watchable.

But Wells, who has a feel for real-life work experiences (his “Company Men” — about aging executives cut adrift by the Bush recession —  was 2010’s most underrated film) never moves “Burnt” into genuine emotional territory. There are temper tantrums here and kitchen meltdowns, but they seem more like opportunities for a star turn than  organic parts of the story.

It’s all very slick. But not all that filling.

| Robert W. Butler