ON THE SILVER SCREEN: TOO MUCH PLOT OVERCOOKS "SOUL KITCHEN"

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By Brian Lafferty

 

September 17, 2010 (San Diego)--A lot happens in Soul Kitchen. Too much, actually. Just as a film can rarely survive on the flimsiest of plots, a movie can have just as much a hard time sustaining itself trying to balance a smorgasbord of story lines. This newest film by German director Fatih Akin suffers from a major case of plot overload. In my notes I made a list and counted six distinct story threads. For this movie that was too many.

 

The first plot, the primary one, has Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos, who co-wrote the script with Akin) struggling to keep his restaurant afloat; throughout the movie he has it renovated twice. Number two is his gradually dissolving long-distance relationship with his girlfriend. Akin then throws in more subplots which include Zinos’ recurring back problems, trouble with taxes, a blossoming romance between his ex-convict brother and a pretty waitress, and said brother’s chronic gambling problem.

 

Amazingly, the movie isn’t a mess. These plots are well-structured and the movie as a whole is comprehensible. On the screenwriting level, I cannot help but admire Akin’s and Bousdoukos’s ambition. There are six distinct threads but they make them interesting, meaty and coherent. They each have their own three acts as well as their ups and downs, just as any good plot should have.

 

But they are too much of a good thing. If Akin could have eliminated two or three plots and characters, the movie’s foundation would have been a bit more stable. If it were up to me, I would remove his brother entirely and take out the back problem. The latter plot is the weakest of the film because, while it has a beginning, middle, and end, it consists of the same joke. It isn’t all bad, though. After the many run-throughs of back injury gags, it pays off at the very end with a new love interest for Zinos. 
They should have inserted her as a waitress instead of creating an entire plot for her.

 

 

The characters for the most part are interesting. Prominent among them is Shayn, the pretentious and snobbish chef who thinks those who prefer pizza and schnitzels are “culinary racists.” His exquisite dishes reflect his snooty nature. They not only look appetizing but are prepared just like a chef in a high-class restaurant would concoct them. This gives the character a lot of credibility.

 

Compared to the supporting cast, Bousdoukos is less compelling, at least at the start. During the first half his performance lacks life. If it wasn’t for the characters surrounding him, he would have made each scene empty. Fortunately, he changes and with a little bit of patience, it is a delight to watch this bland and befuddled man transform.

 

Despite the plot overload and the pedestrian main character, I laughed a few times. The film leaves plenty of room for humor, which is not lost in the translation. The English subtitles are pleasurable and amusing. The translator does an exceptional job balancing both the timing of the words with the timing of the action.

 

Soul Kitchen is, for the most part, never boring, although towards the end I began growing restless. There was only so much plot and character I could take. Sometimes a movie can get away with it but not this one. This film simply does not require such a multitude. There were a lot of things I liked about it but afterwards I left the theater with the mental equivalent of a stomachache.


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