Soul Kitchen - Movie Review

Soul Kitchen is a quirky, off-beat German comedy released in 2009. It is an eclectic mix of food, music, eccentric characters and hard luck. Director Faith Akin wrote this screenplay along with the lead actor, Adam Bousdoukos. It is an average but entertaining story that survives on the strength of the character studies.

Zinos Kazantsakis (Bousdoukos) is a culinary entrepreneur. His restaurant, Soul Kitchen, serves a variety of gut busting staples, mostly fried. The quality of the food appears to be marginal but has a loyal following. Not quite loyal enough for Zinos to pay the bills. His kitchen is not up to code, he owes back taxes and barely has enough money left over for much else. In short, it is a money pit. But it is his money pit, and Zinos is determined to make it succeed.

Zinos is surrounded by vibrant characters. His brother Illias (Moritz Bleibtreu) is on work release from prison. He likes to play poker and hang out with his ruffian buddies, using the restaurant as an excuse to get released during the day. He develops a budding relationship with Zinos' waitress, Lucia (Anna Bederke). Lucia doesn't seem to mind that Illias is on work release. She is a free spirit with a good heart.

When Zinos' girlfriend Nadine (Pheline Roggan) heads off to China as a correspondent, he decides to stay behind and work on his restaurant. He crosses paths with an unstable prima dona chef who is determined to transform the restaurant into a respectable joint. But Zinos must contend with the tax collector and the health department, who is sent to his establishment by a conniving childhood friend (Nuemann, played by Wotan Wilke Mohring) who wants to purchase the property and resell it. With a heavy dose of hard luck thrown in, Zinos struggles his way through the tentacles of bad decisions and treachery to try and make things work. Both in his business and his private life.

Soul Kitchen will keep your head spinning with the complexity of the characters and the many directions the story goes. I was a little bit irritated by the amount of happenstance (contrivance) required to make the story work, but it was fun. As a comedy, it set up some decent sub-plots made more interesting by the characters than the actual story lines. As a foreign film, this German comedy has a different feel, with an Indie warmth and charm.

Bleibtreu was in a German film I reviewed yesterday called The Experiment, which was based on a true story. I liked his performances in both films. All of the casting in Soul Kitchen appeared to be carefully considered. Bousdoukos played his role pretty straight, adding a dry humor to the film. The love story aspect was thought out, allowing the actors to help tell the story without giving anything away too quickly. Quirky characters require careful casting, which was the case with this film.

I did not enjoy Soul Kitchen as much as some of the other German films I have seen, but it is a solid comedy. Part of that lies in the fact that comedy films are not my favorite genre. The majority of my not recommended reviews are comedies. Comedy has to be done right (Superbad is a good example) for me to really get a toe-hold on the story. Soul Kitchen is not slapstick, which is an advantage. It is warm and actually has a decent plot beneath the contrivances. I would moderately recommend Soul Kitchen with 6.5/10.

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