How was this?

A gastronomic delight! Sorry couldn't resist that. Helena Bonham Carter is really quite good in it. Well worth a watch. I'm a failed nutritionist - never was much good at sciences or at least those you need to study it at university. I always adored domestic science as it was in my day, at school so part of me really enjoyed it for that. I'm not familiar with Nigel Slater's dishes but I gather he is a non traditional type cook. Tell you what Mrs Potter certainly fed them to death! Still a great skill to have and I'm going to check out his recipes now I think.

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I quite enjoyed it, but maybe I was expecting more of a traditional story. My fault I'm sure, but it was as if the director set out to make Nigel Slater look like a total prick, right down to the evil grin at the end.

Was I supposed to dislike the second Mrs Slater? I felt quite sorry for her, as the young Nigel basically bullied her the whole time she was with his dad.

I had no idea who Nigel Slater was before watching it; I only saw the trailers advertising it and thought it would be funnier than it turned out to be. I imagined it would be the boy and the cleaner locked in some sort of battle for the father's attention but it turned out a bit grim in the end, with a hard-working woman driven over the edge and the father miserable because the two most important people left in his life just couldn't get along - Ken Stott was wonderful by the way, and I would have liked to have seen more of him.

So, overall not bad, probably recommended if you're already familiar with Nigel Slater, but the defining "message" left me scratching my head, particularly as this was apparently based on an autobiographical book which I'm sure wouldn't have been as unflattering to Nigel as the film was.

EDIT: the more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards it being badly directed. The performances were good. I suspect the film was too close to the source material. The start did drag and while it was over-sentimental, Nigel's mother wasn't portrayed as being sweet - we were TOLD she was sweet - she was portrayed as being a drip who routinely put her son second to her unreasonable husband. But it was obvious that the father was merely re-directing the frustration he felt about his wife's illness and taking it out on the boy. And every time young Nigel expressed his love for his mother, he was acting like a spoiled and selfish brat whose primary concern regarding his mother's illness being that she wouldn't be around to look after him.

I dunno. Maybe there's a reason Hollywood sticks to a formula.

I thought it was excellent, very pleasing to watch and well acted.







"Life after death is as improbable as sex after marriage"- Madeline Kahn(CLUE, 1985)