Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Set in 1889 France, Dodin Bouffant is a chef living with his personal cook and lover Eugénie. They share a long history of gastronomy and love but Eugénie refuses to marry Dodin, so the food lover decides to do something he has never done before: cook for her.
The Taste of Things is a sensuous, unhurried French romance built around the art of cooking as an expression of love and intimacy. Its cinematography is exceptional — the extended opening cooking sequence is a masterclass in observational filmmaking, capturing the tactile beauty of food preparation with extraordinary patience and detail. Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel deliver deeply felt, naturalistic performances, their real-life romantic history lending an unmistakable authenticity to their on-screen chemistry. The plot is deliberately thin — more mood and sensation than narrative — which suits the film's intentions but limits dramatic momentum; it meanders without urgency. Novelty is solid but not extraordinary: food-as-love is a well-worn subject in French cinema, and while Trần Anh Hùng's execution is refined and personal, it doesn't radically reinvent the territory. The ending, while tonally appropriate and emotionally resonant, feels slightly abrupt given the film's measured pacing, leaving some emotional threads unresolved.