COOKING WITH STELLA (Mongrel, 2009) D: Dilip Mehta, w/ Seema Biswas, Don McKellar. Rating: NN DVD package: NN Rating: NN
Here’s a great idea spoiled by an underdeveloped script and, with one shining exception, indifferent acting.
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The exception is Seema Biswas, the titular Stella, who has been cooking for Canadian consular staff in New Delhi for 30 years and supplements her meagre income by robbing her employers blind. Biswas is both a charming screen presence and the kind of polished actor who can flip with total conviction from warm-hearted to flinty in the blink of an eye.
Stella’s latest employers are Michael and Fiona Laffont (Don McKellar and Sue Macartney). Fiona has the consular job Michael is a professional chef who persuades Stella to teach him Indian cooking. His bland, amiable performance just makes Biswas look better.
The movie is at its best in Stella’s scamming and her kitchen and market scenes with Michael. Sadly, director Dilip Mehta drags in a subplot about an honest nanny whom Stella must corrupt, and later, a transparent and unfunny kidnap plot.
In the five-minute making-of doc, Mehta says his movie is about culture clash. This may account for the civics-lesson quality of his social comments.
EXTRAS Making-of doc. Widescreen. English, French audio. French subtitles.
