March Movies Part 2: The Taste of Things & Irish Wish

Today I present you with both a high-brow option and a low-brow option. Watch one, watch them both, either way you will have a grand time!

The Taste of Things: Written and directed by Tran Anh Hung, and starring Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel, this film was France’s official entry to the Oscars. When you sit down to watch it, please ensure you have already eaten or have plenty of snacks on hand because you are going to be starving by the end of it.

Set in 1889 on a French country estate, this is a story of Dodin (Magimel) and his cook, Eugenie (Binoche), two people who are obsessed with preparing incredible meals. They are also lovers, but while Dodin wants to get married, Eugenie doesn't see the point. Her life is perfect as is, why ruin it with marriage? Over the course of two hours, you will be treated to sumptuous, languid scenes of these two people (assisted by a woman named Violette and her young niece, Pauline, who proves to be a culinary wunderkind) making delicious meals. These scenes were all shot using real food instead of cinematically staged items, and there is no soundtrack except for the sound of vegetables being chopped, meats sizzling on the stove, and wine being splashed into a pan. Sidenote, my fiance, who was a chef in a former life, would routinely call out the next step in the recipes they were preparing, and he would be right. So, the script is certainly brimming with culinary accuracy.

There is plenty of interpersonal drama afoot, but everything between the humans takes place in the background while the food is the delicious foreground. This is a contemplative, lush film and I can't imagine anyone would have any regrets when watching it. Well except that they are now very, very hungry.

Irish Wish: From the sublime to the ridiculous. Directed by Janeen Damian, with a script from Kirsten Hansen, this is Lindsay Lohan's latest Netflix romcom. And frankly, I am quite charmed that this is the direction she has chosen for her career. One can never get enough of silly romances that take place in spectacular settings, and this one certainly delivers.

Lohan plays Maddie, a book editor who is hopelessly in love with Paul Kennedy (Alexander Vlahos), an Irish author whose book she has helped write. Unfortunately, she doesn't tell him about her true feelings, and at the book launch, he is charmed by her best friend, Emma (Elizabeth Tan). After a whirlwind courtship, the two are headed to Ireland to get married, and Maddie is on her way as a bridesmaid. When she gets there, she goes on a tour of the scenic countryside, happens upon a magical "wishing chair," wishes that Paul was marrying her instead, and when she wakes up the next day...well, you see where we're going, right?

What follows is your standard set of tropes about getting what you wished for, which makes you understand what you should have actually wished for. There's a handsome Englishman, James Thomas (Ed Speelers), who is serving as the wedding photographer, but...you can see where that's going, right? This film is spectacularly dumb and spectacularly splendid, and if you're not sprawling on the couch and watching it this weekend, you really have not made good life choices. I watched it to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, and while I'm sure Irish people are mortally offended by this film, I had a swell time!