Food porn mixed with travel porn, the recipe that kept Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan on their series of Trips, is the flour, eggs and water that binds THE FOOD CLUB, a Danish pastry made of soft corn.
It’s Christmas time in Denmark, and three old friends, women of a certain age, are celebrating it quite differently.
Marie is putting on the big, traditional meal for her husband, grown children and their children. Berling has her daughter and grandchild over but the idea of a grubby clinging kid soiling her beautiful dress, carefully applied makeup and pristine home is anathema to her. And Vanja is still mourning her departed husband and doting on her dog.
Marie’s gift from her husband of 44 years is an electric steam iron and the revelation that he is having an affair and dissolving the marriage. Her kids have pooled together to send their parents on a cooking school vacation in Italy.
Marie bequeaths her Yule gift to her old mates, who accept but with the proviso they chip in and secure a third berth at the junket. And so the three life-long girlfriends travel to Italy together to attend a cooking course in Puglia and here they each find the opportunity to redefine themselves.
There’s more sugar and spice than meat and potatoes in THE FOOD CLUB, with Director BarbaraTopsøe-Rothenborg and Scriptwriter Anne-Marie OlesenThinghuus adhering to the tick the box tropes of the late in life finding yourself romantic comedy. You get what you’re served and it’s satisfying in itself thanks to the performances of its three leads and the gorgeous location.
Kirsten Olesen plays the forlorn Marie, Stina Ekblad plays the sophisticated Berling, and Kirsten Lehfeldt plays the homely Vanja, all with a breezy connection that makes their characters’ connections feel real and palpable.
And then there is Puglia, with its gorgeous environs, its zesty population and its food that leaves no time to diet.
Unassuming but very appetising, THE FOOD CLUB is a low calorie smorgasbord with a touch of Italian flair.
THE FOOD CLUB starts in cinemas this Thursday 4th February, 2021.