‘Toast’ is a fabulous food fight

As we launch into a cinema season chock full of serious fare and Oscar buzz – kicked off by the Starz Denver Film Festival (Nov. 2 – 13) – along comes an uncomplicated and enjoyable film I saw a few months ago: Toast. This touching and often humorous film is set in 1960s England, with all its charm, kitsch and FOOD beautifully realized. Based on the published memoirs of Nigel Slater, Toast is a tale of one boy’s hunger, food and love.

The film begins with 9-year-old Nigel (Oscar Kennedy) who adores his mum (Victoria Hamilton), even though she’s a tragic cook. The woman throws cans into a pan of water and still manages to burn the food by letting the pan boil dry. One thing – maybe the only thing – she can successfully cook is toast. Nigel’s brusque father (Ken Stott) has limited resources for love: enough for his fragile wife, and only enough left over to tolerate his son. When mum succumbs to asthma, the father barely has words for his son.

Nigel’s brief friendship with the handsome gardener Josh is our first inkling of what is to come. Unfortunately it seems the father is suspicious of his son.

Moving forward, Nigel is now portrayed by Freddie Highmore, the young actor who wrung tears from viewers in Finding Neverland. The household isn’t any warmer, so a housekeeper is hired, much to Nigel’s dismay. Mrs. Potter (Helena Bonham Carter) is an aging slapper whose clothes are too tight and hems are too short. To boot, she’s loud and sharp tongued. When Nigel doesn’t warm up to her, she becomes the film’s bitch.

Mrs. Potter’s one strong suit: she is a monster in the kitchen, and this fascinates Nigel. His new quandary: how to learn from someone he despises. What could have been a bonding exercise for the two turns into a food fight: competitive cooking to win dad’s heart.

Unfortunately the onslaught of rich foods and desserts is too much for one man.

Throughout the film, Stott holds up with great acting as the father. Staying just shy of caricature, this seasoned actor provides a solid core to the goings-on in his house.

Freddie Highmore is still subtly magnetic on screen, mostly in charge of sullen teen moodiness and his disapproval of Mrs. Potter.

In the split role of Nigel, Kennedy gets to fashion a complex character in the son who adores his mother and has no choice but to endure her illness.

Helping Nigel come of age are Matthew McNulty as Josh the gardener and Ben Aldridge as Stuart. Josh helps to awaken the awareness of hot men in young Nigel and Stuart rips the door off teen Nigel’s closet. The sequence during which Stuart confidently cooks and prepares a plate – seemingly unaware of Nigel’s rapt attention – is incredibly sensual. Highmore captures the refreshing rudeness of someone who is fascinated and turned-on, all wrapped up in bewilderment.

Helena Bonham Carter delivers in spades as Mrs. Potter, the slatternly old cow with solid gold domestic skills. She is funny, repulsive and makes an obscene lemon meringue pie. (The food styling by Katharine Tidy is absolute splendor).

If you love the look and sound of the ’60s, mixed with a doddy story of a charming British gay boy getting his food on, Toast may charm you as much as it did me.

Grade: B
‘Toast’ begins  Oct. 21 at Landmark’s Chez Artiste Theater. On the Web at http://landmarktheaters.com.