- The extremely well known actor, Bradley Cooper, starred as chef Adam Jones in what seemed like it would be a good movie; however, Burnt was strangely both good and bad at the same time in its own ways.
While watching the movie it is very difficult to actually figure out what the storyline is actually talking about. It progresses extremely rapidly and does not fill in any of the missing storyline. The audience is left to guess at what is actually happening – picking at bits and pieces of dialogue to attempt to put together the puzzle of what the backstory is. Throughout the movie many questions arise such as: Why do all of these people hate him? What did he do? Unfortunately these questions are not directly answered, and are left to make assumptions but never specifically explained whether or not such an assumption is correct – it’s very confusing and annoying.
The main storyline is also very vague. In the middle of the movie it is still unclear what the idea of the whole story is and this only became slightly clearer after looking up a summary of the plot on the internet. As it turns out the main character – Chef Jones – is attempting to win his third Michelin Star. After reading this you realize that this was mentioned in the movie, however, it was mentioned so nonchalantly that it was only a normal part of conversation. There was no dramatic pause, no dramatic close up, nothing to indicate that this was the challenge of the whole movie.
Even after you realize this, many still have no idea what the Michelin Star actually is – again it is mentioned in the movie, and there is a weak attempt at explaining what it is. Still though there was no clues as to that was the attempt at explaining what the movie was about, and again even then it was still confusing. Chef Jones seems to have a love interest, but this is just as vague as what the actual storyline is, so it seems as though this love interest may also be what the main storyline is, but in actuality this is a mediocre way of adding a layer to the story. This layer went absolutely nowhere and after the film one finds them wondering ‘what happened to the love interest?’
The final complaint of the movie is the ending. The ending was so abrupt and let many questions unanswered. It left its audience feeling dissatisfied, wanting a more emotional and meaningful ending. Absolutely nothing resonated after the movie ended with its Sopranos’ like black screen ending – cutting right to the credits. This ending was followed by ‘what? That’s it?’
Although the movie was a huge disappointment, this does not affect the performance of Bradley Cooper. Cooper brings his absolute best to the table as he always does and is possibly the best part of this movie. The character of Chef Adam Jones was absolutely amazing. Cooper was able to perfectly capture the emotions going into a man as distraught as his character – the anger, the depression, and most importantly the passion his character has with cooking. Setting aside the horrible plot development, there was no shortage of great character development. Numerous supporting actors such as Sienna Miller, who worked with Cooper before in American Sniper, and Matthew Rhys, co-star of the hit TV show The Americans, do a phenomenal job in playing their parts along with Cooper.
This would bring into play the one part of the movie that can be considered good and enjoyable. The actors in the movie all do a spectacular job in working with each other and bringing together whatever storyline they possibly could be able to. This movie is more of an in the moment movie as opposed to a movie that makes you feel all different types of emotions throughout the whole movie such as in Cooper’s American Sniper. Burnt makes you interested with what is happening right at that exact moment of the movie, and at the time something is happening it is a very good and very well done scene. However, as a whole the movie makes no sense and after realizing this it is a very big disappointment, almost a waste of the talent of the actors and actresses cast for the movie.
