Chef's Special

THE FLICK
Take one tablespoon gay romance, one quarter cup advocacy, a few teaspoons parenting instruction and a cup of culinary skills and you have the 100% screwball Spanish comedy Chef's Special. Maxi (Javier Camara) is the owner of Xantrella, a restaurant constantly teetering on the edge of profitability. He has thrown everything he has into the endeavor and has relatively little to show for it. Employees think he needs to get laid, his personal life lacks a boyfriend and he hasn't seen his children in years. Things get complicated as his ex-wife dies, leaving the kids to him and a prestigious guide book inspector threatens to either make or break the restaurant. Oh, and Maxi falls in love with a retired, closeted soccer player (Benjamin Vicuna), fawned over by maitre'd Alex (Lola Duenas).

The charm of Chef's Special comes from Camara and his take on the character. Surely, the script by director Nacho G. Velilla and Oriol Capel, Antonio Sanchez and Davis Sanchez has something to do with it, giving Camara a road map on how be Maxi, but is the actor's role from start to finish. Even though he's easily excitable, there's a grounded presence to him; that is to say, even when he does start flailing his arms or become a stereotypical diva, he's always accessible on an emotional level. So when his cooking staff says he's a faggot who needs to get boned, we don't take offense to it because Maxi's offense is destined to be short lived. (Not to mention his exaggerated facial expressions and hand gestures, like throwing his hand over his forehead while being incredulous like any classic Hollywood diva.) He's frantically onto the next thing before the previous situation can be fully resolved. While his flamboyance can be a turn off, especially to audience's repelled by broad stereotypes, it works in Chef's Special precisely because the film is designed to be a screwball comedy.

The restaurant is the main thrust of the movie, the place where everyone and everything eventually comes together, though the story isn't necessarily committed to being about cooking. It's a metaphor, instead, for life: throw in a bunch of elements which seemingly don't go together and see what they make. If it tastes good and people like it, you're a genius. If not, you make corrections until you get there. Maxi hasn't followed that path. He's devoted years to this establishment and in pursuit of the Michelin star-a seal of approval from the Michelin guide book and something Maxi believes will drive traffic. But he's missing the balance, like making soup without broth or steak without pepper. Chef's Special doesn't beat the message over the audience's head, opting to introduce new elements gradually and see how they affect one another.

That balance in a couple different forms, none of which overpower the others. The first is soccer player Horacio. Not that every film needs to have a social or political component to it, but his coming out publicly subplot provides just a enough relevance for a film bordering on the absurd. It should come as no surprise how the relationship stands when the film ends so it's not exactly a spoiler to say the simple arc-maybe a bit too simple-he and Maxi travel through is endearing and uplifting. Their relationship, played out in small bits as opposed to engulfing the entire story, feels authentic with the usual squabbles and low points. Camara and Vicuna play off each other brilliantly, both taking on characteristics of the straight man and the comedian. A scene with Alex inside Horacio's apartment involves a closet, a door and a precarious tray of food. In their witty repartee, both men show wild tenacity with Duenas providing allure and sexuality.

About the Alex character: it may be stereotypical in 2009 to show a gay male with a best female friend. However, Chef's Special isn't above using stereotypes when it suits its goal. What Alex brings to the film is a breezy sexuality, a full-on diva and comic relief when the story threatens to get too serious. Notice she is the only person in the film who can talk down to Maxi, actually getting through to him on a level no one else can. Granted, hitting him in the head with a metal cabinet door is one of those ways (one of the many funny kitchen gags in the film), but the idea remains. Alex is the glue which holds everything together. When the restaurant is embroiled in turmoil, she snaps people back to attention. And when she's the one falling apart, people respond to help her.

No discussion of the film can be complete without the kids, Edu and Alba. Their role, along with Horacio, is to provide Maxi with something to hold onto when his world starts to circle the drain. It's a long, tough slog to be sure; there are numerous scenes of strife within the family. But it's that strife that makes Maxi a better person in the end. In the restaurant, he can control everything since he's the boss. But at home, neither teenage Edu nor youngster Alba lets him gain the upper hand. Edu constantly rebels in stunningly horrific (well, horrific for a comedy) ways, dragging his sister with him. And when Maxi physically takes his place as their father, he immediately second guesses himself, as if Alex was sitting on his shoulder as his conscience.

The script gives the audience permission to laugh even when we know we shouldn't, as in a father-son soccer match. Or when Maxi's father tells particularly off-color gay jokes. We know, in the real world, these things would be met with scorn and dismay. But in this movie, in this world, where events are always worse than they seem, we can chuckle, giggle and even laugh knowing full well the soup has all the right ingredients and will come out perfect in the end.

THE LOOK
The criteria for judging the look of American films versus foreign ones stays the same no matter where the film may be from. In this anamorphic picture, the lighting is mostly flat, designed to be realistic without eye popping or distracting. It has the unintended side effect of making every location look unnaturally bright, as if someone came through and washed every single window at the top of every hour. Technically, there's nothing wrong with the transfer. Blacks are appropriately deep, fleshtones come off as natural and various colors do jump against white backgrounds as they should. A green soccer talk show set, for example, is striking. At isolated times in the film, certain objects tend to have halo's to them, but they're only noticeable from extremely close range. Overall, a very solid job.

THE SOUND
I have to be completely honest: despite Chef's Special being a Spanish language film and having the English subtitles turned on, the 5.1 mix is nearly inaudible. At the same volume setting, the 2.0 version is much easier to hear. Even if we're essentially "reading" the movie, there's no reason for the audio mix to be so threadbare. I venture to guess there wasn't much for TLA to work with from the original elements (this is, after all, a foreign screwball comedy) and they tried to create an encompassing track.

Nearly all the dialogue in the 5.1 iteration is forced through the center speaker, leaving the side speakers to provide the slightest hint of echoes. The rears do next to nothing in most scenes. On the 2.0 side, these disparate elements are brought to together and channeled through only a few speakers, leading to a cleaner and better experience. As always, to their credit, there is no English dubbed track on the disc. English subtitles are included.

THE STUFF
Chef's Special is packaged in a black keepcase with no insert. A generic TLA Releasing promo spot and trailers for other films (Schoolboy Crush, Another Gay Sequel, 3 Day Weekend and Boystown) play at start up. They are also available from the Special Features menu.

The only real bonus content of note is a six minute making of featurette combining film clips, actor interviews, footage of a table read and audition tapes. There's absolutely no useful information in the piece and tends to be a waste. A photo gallery with 19 stills (running 2:13) is up next along with the Chef's Special trailer. All video-based special features are presented in a letterbox format.