Chef's Special

Maxi (Cámara) is a foul-mouthed, flamboyant and mostly unlikable chef in Madrid, whose professional and personal lives are thrown into disarray when he is forced to take in his children from a failed marriage.

Already a box office comedy smash in Spain, Nacho Velilla’s directorial debut is bright and breezes along, but is saddled with an unbalanced and overly enthusiastic script which reads like a wish list of gay themed cinema clichés. Too many ingredients are added to the mix which are long past their expiry date: the Lipsmacking But Closeted Boyfriend (Vicuña); the Boozy Fag-Hag (Dueñas); the Bitter Older Child (Junio Valverde). The outcome, though well intentioned, lacks any real character.

Vicuña and Almodóvar regulars Cámara and Dueñas work well together when sharing the screen and add dynamism to some key scenes, but the script works against them. Nothing is allowed the proper time it needs to develop, resulting in a film that is unsatisfyingly lightweight.