The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

Rating:
Summary: Worst Film of All Time!!
Review: Take away the visual style, set pieces, production and direction and THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, AND HER LOVER has no redeeming value. It is a film of excess, gore, humiliation, and decadence. This is a detestable movie with characters we don't care about and an ending that is so graphically sick it is beyond reproach. Why this film is hailed as great by some people defies explanation. To find out why by watching again wouldn't change this reviewers mind. This reviewer would rather watch JACKASS:THE MOVIE...at least there is some humor and comedy to all the decadence in that film.

Rating:
Summary: Repulsive and Beautiful
Review: While i don't recall from any of Shakespeare's work a scene in which a naked chef is smeared with dog crap and then urinated on, it would be easy to compare this Greenaway film to that of a Shakespeare tragity. The beautiful and corrupt wealthy, the fight of good versus evil & inevitable loss of good, and finally the gut-wrenching revenge.

"The Cook The Theif His Wife and Her Lover" is an amazingly well crafted movie, with a magnificant script and casting to match, beautiful cinematography and art direction, excellent acting and to top it all off, a haunting soundtrack.

The plot of the film is basically the title, but explained a bit more, the plot is as followes: The theif buys out a resturant, determined to make it HIS favorite resteraunt, he insists on using his on selection of meat, fish and other ingredients. His wife is disgusted by her husband and his childish behaviour, so thus finds herself a lover, just a few seats away. Making frequent trips to the bathroom, wife and lover make their greatest efforts not to be discovered.

Wierd as it is, this is a wonderful movie. It's left a lasting impression that i'm sure never to forget.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of time
Review: I rented this knowing that it's one of my boyfriend's favorite movies. I wanted to like it but had no idea what to expect. I found a visually intriguing but soulless film. I believe it was meant to be soulless but that doesn't appeal to me. I wouldn't understand how any woman would enjoy this movie (not counting the sets & colors & outfits). Secondly, there was a lot of violence, cannibalism, sex, and overall the film is a bit boorish just like the old crime boss. There were some fun things like a near-albino choirboy that sang while he washed dishes in the kitchen but his fate is unfortunate. Overall, if you don't mind being reminded for several hours of all the cruel, sick, ignorant, greedy, and soulless people in the world then go ahead and watch this movie. Usually, even if I'm watching a movie about cruel people, I see some sort of soul in the movie such as the souls of the people being hurt (example: Schindler's List). In this movie, there are no redeeming characteristics to the people being hurt and you just have no reason to empathize. It's superficial and relies too much on the visuals to carry it.

Rating:
Summary: A Bizarre Trip in Erotica
Review: When I perused the previous reviews of this movie it became apparent to me that people think the movie is very bizarre and love it or they think it's very bizarre and hate it. There doesn't seem to be much indifference when it comes to "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover".

"The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover" was written and directed by Peter Greenaway. Most of the film is set in an splendid epicurean restaurant called "Le Hollandais" which is owned by the Thief, Albert Spica (Michael Gambon) the uncouth, vulgar restaurant's owner. Albert a brutal criminal holds court every evening at the restaurant, along with his attractive wife Georgina (Helen Mirren) and various obsequious subordinates where he foists his convoluted views and questionable wisdom upon his captive audience. Even though Albert is the restaurant's owner his presence is tolerated and endured by the staff, including the Cook/Chef Richard (French actor Richard Bohringer). In short, Albert is a man easy to hate and impossible to like.

One evening while Albert is giving one of his boring discourses, often berating his guests, the apparently subservient Georgiana observes a moderately good looking gentleman reading a book while dining. She finds this studious man interesting, the antithesis of her vulgar, mean, loutish husband. After catching his attention and visually flirting back and forth for a few minutes, they meet each other in the hall to the restrooms, eventually enjoying a sexual liaison in a stall in the Ladies Room.

And so Georgina takes Michael (Alan Howard) as her lover, in an extremely dangerous love affair, having sex in various places, with the help of the Cook, within the confines of the restaurant, under the nose of her husband. Her obnoxious husband, who's no fool, becomes suspicious and eventually finding he's been made a cuckold is furious, stating publicly and categorically that he will kill Michael and eat him.

I will leave the rest of the movie to your imagination.

CONCLUSION

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover is a movie of dichotomies. On one hand we have elegance and beauty, on the other there is vulgarity and ugliness. There is tenderness offset by brutality, boorishness in the face of proper etiquette, affection and sadism and above all, we have eroticism. I suppose Greenaway may have been trying to recreate a microcosm of life itself for, upon reflection, that is how I view it.

This is not a movie for the timid. Though not pornographic, it is sexually exploitive and mentally engaging, capturing ones imagination though not to the point of stimulating ones libido. None under the age of seventeen should watch this movie since there is much nudity including full frontal, but the the love scenes are handled delicately and tastefully. There are other reasons for not allowing younger viewers as well, since there is violence and a rather bizarre unnatural ending.

I can understand how some might find this distasteful or even abhorrent but I, who sometimes gravitate to the unusual, found the movie appealing and intriguing. Furthermore it was not just the cast (excellent), the storyline (wild) and the acting (wonderful) that fascinated me. The colorful surreal set was lovely and the method of cinematography, where the colors of the characters clothing would change from entering the kitchen form the dining room and vice versa, was extremely interesting.

This is a movie that is memorable and worth seeing if you think you can handle it after my warning.