Soul Kitchen
Director: Fatih Akin
Year Released: 2009
Rating: 2.0
A restaurant owner (Adam Bousdoukous, a German Jack Black) has many problems: his girlfriend leaves to go to China (and then leaves him for a Chinese man), his business is floundering, his brother (Moritz Bleibtreu) is in jail (kind-of, sort-of) and he's got serious back trouble. It's (the usually dead serious) Akin's take on the American comedy: the gags are desperate (screwing in the middle of a dance floor? fighting at a funeral? choking on a button?) and just as lame as whatever the 'U.S. version' of this would be - though rampant silliness can sometimes be charming, Akin's approach is too heavy: it's forced enthusiasm. Still, it's easy to relish the gnarled face and overall intensity of Birol Ünel as the title establishment's controversial cook: his passion is real.
