The Menu: A Movie That is Not About Food

I've read two good reviews about this movie (The Menu) on Hive. So why would anyone read another review? As good as the previous reviews were, the authors didn't see the movie the way I did.

_{Recreation of a scene from the movie. Collage by @agmoore, with elements borrowed from Pixabay (Wings), Pixabay (Man in business suit), and @muelli (Seascape, LIL Gallery).}

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
The Menu is not about food. It's not about class. It's not about personality. It's about larger issues, issues that touch on freedom and responsibility. It's about autonomy, courage, and independence.

The set up of the film seems unique, but it's not really. The action takes place in a restaurant, on an island, where diners have access to no outside resources. They are totally dependent on the Chef and his staff. Since the staff obeys the Chef with zombie-like dedication, the one person in charge of the island and all the diners is the Chef.

It turns out, as the Chef himself declares, he's a monster.

Putting the food aside, anything about this scenario sound familiar? How many movies have been made about people stranded in a hostile environment, trapped, left to their own devices? Who survives in such a place? Not the weak. Not the subservient. Not the followers. And so it is in The Menu.

The restaurant is the Hawthorn. Sinister elements are suggested early in the film, for those who are observant. In case audience members aren't paying attention, one character in the film is paying attention. Margo.

Who is Margo? That becomes as much a mystery as the design for the evening. One thing we know from the start is Margo stands apart.

As everyone departs the ferry and it sails away, she looks over her shoulder. It gives her pause, this leave-taking. She is not at ease being left on the island without an exit strategy.

When the diners enter the restaurant, people are chatting without concern about their environment. Only Margo notes when the heavy solid door closes decisively, and it seems, irrevocably behind them.

The film makers have given us in Margo not only a distinct perspective, but a character apart. In Margo we see independent thought. We see highlighted a character who might rise above whatever sinister plan is afoot.

That plan becomes evident early on.

The Chef rules. There will be no bread, because the diners don't deserve bread. His decision, arbitrary, unassailable.

One diner decides to leave. He'll call a helicopter to take him off the island. Not so fast. As he heads toward the door --- that solid, irrevocably closed door, he is tackled by restaurant staff. They take him back to his table and chop off his ring finger.

Game on. This is no longer about food, the diners realize. There is another menu, another agenda, and the diners are as much a part of its realization as any garnish.

The evening continues and the Chef follows his prescribed menu. Very precise. Everyone, everything has a place, a pre-determined role in the evening. Only Margo doesn't fit in.

She wasn't supposed to be there. She is a substitute date, and the Chef is disturbed by her dissonance. She's ruining his menu.

How do we know Margo doesn't fit in? It's not just because she notices what others overlook. It's because she refuses to participate.

The Chef claps his hands and says, "Eat!". But Margo doesn't eat. The menu makes no sense to her. The food doesn't appeal to her and it doesn't fill her.

The Chef insists on knowing why she doesn't eat, and she says she's not hungry. She can decide for herself when to eat and when not to eat.

This is a line easily overlooked, but it is the heart of Margo's survivability. She can decide. That's it. She's not passive. She has not relinquished her will merely because she's in a restaurant, under the Chef's authority. She does not bend blindly to authority but maintains her independence.

This is really the heart of the film. The one person who stands apart, who resists the unreasonable authority of the Chef, is Margo.

_{S'mores, on the menu, in the movie The Menu. Image by Evan-Amos on Wikimedia Commons. CCO 1.0}

One wonders, as the film progresses, what happened to the others? They are many. Even the Chef suggests at one point the diners must ask themselves why they didn't resist more. Yet, they go like sheep to the slaughter. One or two expressions of revolt pop up, but there is no unified effort, no uprising against what has obviously become a plan to kill them.

We might ask, what would we do? But then, isn't that a question that comes up frequently these days? Gunmen attack a shopping center, a bowling alley, a restaurant. How would we react? Even if death is certain, would we go passively to that end? Or would we resist?

The question can be expanded to a larger forum. If we are threatened with an autocratic government, do we go blindly and submit or do we fight back? Are we passive, or are we creatures of independent will?

Margo is who we all hope we would be. But would we? She takes risks. Stands apart. Draws the fury of the Chef at one point. In the end, does this independence serve her? Does she survive? Does anyone?

That part I won't spoil for you.

This movie really is worth your time, but if you do watch it I ask a favor: Consider the free will of each person in the room. Consider their passivity vs their independence. What would you do?

About the Movie (Information taken from IMDB)

The Menu
Director:Mark Mylod
Writers: Seth Reiss and Will Tracy
Producers (From Wikipedia):Adam Mckay, Betsy Koch, Will Ferrel

Stars:
The Chef: Ralph Fiennes
Margot: Anya Taylor-Joy
Tyler: Nicholas Hoult

Release: November 18, 2022
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Run Time: 1 hour, 47 minutes

Where to watch:
I caught it on HBO. It's not available on Netflix but is available on Hulu. Amazon Prime is renting it out for $3.99.