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Anthony Benigno full bio of Anthony Benigno Toast is a very British movie, which isn't just to say that it's all about British people (although it is), but rather it's the type of story where several horrible things happen in rapid succession, yet everyone seems to take them rather well. The movie, thankfully, doesn't spend its efforts taking its tragedies too seriously either, because if it had, we'd never be able to get through it. In fact, throughout the 96-minute running time, we are exposed to the death of a parent, an ongoing affair with a somewhat-destructive wild-card, the steady decline of the remaining parent, and various other emotional roadblocks that, we're meant to believe, would cripple a less well-adjusted person than its hero, a real-life British food writer named Nigel Slater.
That the film doesn't cripple its audience as well is a testament to how well it's made; the whole thing moves along with a breezy, what-me-worry attitude that, if we're being honest, skirts aimlessness more often than not. But director S.J. Clarkson, working from a script based on Slater's memoir, has the good sense to keep the humor flowing and the characters at least semi-likeable. The movie rarely seems like there's anything at stake, which is technically a mark against it, but it does let Clarkson riff rather amusingly on the peculiarities of Slater's upbringing and rise to the level of elite he now occupies.
The bulk of the movie is dedicated to Slater's childhood years, where the boy Nigel (Oscar Kennedy, carrying the movie) deals with his emotionally distant father (Ken Scott) and bonds with his beloved mum (a luminous Victoria Hamilton) over her crappy cooking (her signature dish is -- yep -- toast) until she succumbs to asthma, leaving father and son bereft and with no idea how to communicate with each other. Inspired by his mother's affinity for cooking, Nigel takes up the culinary arts, although considering Mum's relative incompetence at it, Nigel's eventual ascent to an elite chef makes Toast play out like a country British superhero movie.
And like all the best superhero movies, there's a villain. A really good one too, this time in the guise of a chain-smoking, married floozy named Mrs. Potter (Helena Bonham Carter) who promptly steals Dad's heart and stomach with her magnificent lemon meringue pie. With yellowing teeth, a boozy swagger, and padded-up curves preceding her at every turn, Mrs. Potter is a caricature of the most sympathetic variety, and Bonham Carter (most recently whooping it up as a wicked witch in the Harry Potter movies) bites into the role like a slice of well-cured ham. But there's sympathy there, too, which Clarkson and writer Lee Hall wisely choose not to overlook.
The last act of the movie switches gears to the grand duel, as the teenage Nigel (Freddie Highmore, and man, did he get big) squares off against Mrs. Potter to see who can cook the best pie and therefore win the old man's love, while Dad gets fatter and crankier by the minute. These scenes are particularly interesting; the older Nigel, while more appealing on a surface level, is a much less sympathetic character than his younger self or even Mrs. Potter. Highmore's icy, distant delivery highlights a hint of villainy, while Bonham Carter turns on the frenzied desperation as Mrs. Potter tries to save her family from implosion. If this isn't an outright role reversal, it's close enough to one that the somewhat predictable outcome does not occur without a few pleasant wrinkles.
In any case, the big cook-off happens, and then...nothing. It just ends. Toast la-de-das about for so long that Clarkson forgets to set it up for a proper climax. The movie kicks into overdrive in the last fifteen minutes, shoehorning in as many details as it can (Nigel's clandestine kiss with another man comes particularly out of nowhere) before pushing the family dynamic to something of a non-resolution, if not an outright screeching halt.
It's hard to argue that the outcome isn't realistic (it happened, after all), but it's easy to call it anticlimactic. What's a superhero movie without the triumphant up-up-and-away at the end? All we're left with is a satisfied smile and an inherent knowledge that things will turn out alright. There are obviously worse ways to end a movie, but Toast, for all its charms, still feels like it's missing something. It all goes down easy, but where's the BAM!!?
About This Film from the AMC Movie Guide Don't Miss The Way by Anthony Benigno Hell and Back Again by Chris Barsanti Toast by Anthony Benigno Take Shelter by Sam Kressner More from AMC Sites AMC Blogs AMC Movie Guide Filmsite Ten Ways to Get Ready for the Breaking Bad Season 4 Finale This Sunday Night Chat Online While Watching the Season 4 Finale On-Air This Sunday Night Vince Gilligan Talks About the Season 4 Finale; EW Gives the Season 4 Finale an A Flashback Five - Sigourney Weaver's Best Movies Alien Franchise Trivia Game
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