A Taste of Hunger [2021]
Food is… not really my thing. I eat because I have to and find the experience to be almost entirely inconvenient. I think the abuses of the food world are genuinely unacceptable and am largely disgusted by the culture that exists within the “higher” echelons of that universe. The strange religious zealotry that exists within so-called “foodies” when it comes to consuming something prepared in esoteric, wasteful, and largely meaningless ways is something I find… unsettling. So, when I say that this film centered around the pursuit of a Micheline star is entirely captivating, excellently directed, and wonderfully produced, I hope that has some merit.
A Taste of Hunger is a 2021 Danish film that has less than 2,000 reviews across the three major aggregate sites [IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Cacciatoreviews Metacritic] and doesn’t even have a Wikipedia article. While I don’t think Taste is particularly groundbreaking, I do think it deserves more attention than that. The writing is concise, the narrative structure is fun and intriguing, and the cinematography, lighting, and production design aspects are all absolutely masterful and unique without ever feeling the need to be “different”. The film has a very interesting and individual identity with an unusual ability to meander around it’s purported goal without ever losing the audience’s attention. That said, it’s not all rosés and fancy octopus legs. The film has some fairly major drawbacks… drawbacks that are only so striking because the rest of it is so humanly imprecise and vulnerable.
In A Taste of Hunger we follow Chef Carsten and wife Maggie as they chase their collective passions and attempt to win a Micheline star for their Copenhagen based restaurant, Malus. Through a series of current and past events, we learn that there is more to their impassioned lives than we see originally presented. The lengths and stresses one must go to pursue their ultimate dream may drive some to moments of aggressive expression, while it may lead others down roads not easily repaired. In the end, are the loses accrued worth the rewards gained?
A Taste of Hunger is a film best viewed on an OLED or alternate screen of similar color density, because each scene is so vibrantly shot and intentionally lit that to do otherwise would be a disservice. Onscreen, both Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Katrine Greis-Rosenthal are at once captivating and upsetting with the authenticity of their performances. Adding to the overall engagement of the film, the cinematography makes it feel like you’re watching a documentary while the score is subtle, distinct, and moving. As a total piece I’d say this most reminds me of 2020’s Little Fish in visual and energetic presentation, though I don’t think it’s anywhere near as touching or complete. And that lack of of “completeness” is where A Taste of Hunger hurts itself the most.
The film largely centers around our two main characters, Carsten [Coster-Waldau], and, Maggie [Greis-Rosenthal]. These two are excellent, flawed, and dynamic. In short, both of these “characters” are more like “people” rather than something made up and written down for the convenience of a plot. Because of the interestingly real writing of these two characters, many of the tertiary members of the cast feel a little flat. While this is generally the case for roles outside the main focus, there’s two in particular that hinder the film in a fairly large way. I’ll talk about them more in the dropdown below to avoid spoilers. Adding to this lack of completeness is, oddly, the overall and general tidiness of the final scenes of the film. Whereas something like 2019’s A Marriage Story gives us a definite but kind of nebulous and melancholy conclusion, Taste is a little more determined to undermine it’s entire message for the sake of the audience’s approval. For some this won’t be an issue, for me the ending was lacking a little context to truly translate.
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Something the film does very well is make it’s character’s actions mostly gray. While this isn’t an issue for Chloe’s writing, it is one for Frederik’s and, to a lesser degree, Maggie’s.
In a film that could accurately be described as “slice of life”, the treatment of Frederik is very strange and very bland. He seems to have no motivations beyond “I want that” and has no personality beyond “villain”. In his relationship with Maggie there’s nothing that he gains beyond simply having her. Yes, this can be viewed as a power move over Chef Carsten, but I don’t think that’s the case, or at least not a good enough one to assuage me of this feeling of incompleteness from his character. He needed more stakes — more to gain and more to lose. We needed to see that his relationship with Maggie gave him something that he otherwise would not have been able to obtain, so that we can justify his malice later in the film.
Likewise, to further gray Maggie’s actions, the film could have focused a little more on what her goals were and how Carsten wasn’t fulfilling them; giving us more reason to understand her decisions and making it more difficult to simply demonize her for doing the “wrong” thing. These are easy fixes and ones that should have employed.
By being with Maggie, Frederik could have gained the funds needed to start his own restaurant, similar to how she provided that boon to Carsten. Through Frederik, Maggie could have gained an attentive partner less focused on his personal goals and more willing to be the affectionate family man she wants. There’s less easy ways out by giving Maggie actual life-goals, but that requires changing deeper parts of the already established plot.
By making these subtle changes we can more easily justify both Frederik’s contempt [though not his actions —which we will get to next] and Maggie’s mistake. This also leads to a better confrontation between them later in the film… that also doesn’t force the audience to sit through a rape… which is entirely unnecessary nearly 100% of the time.
In a modified version of the script [where Frederik has had the easy road to his dream shattered by Maggie choosing her husband over him] their confrontation starts exactly the same. Except, this time, instead of raping her, he denies her. She reluctantly presents herself to him the same as in the film currently, but he looks her over and denies her instead. In this way he both takes his power back and belittles her by making her feel abandoned and worthless, which is how he feels after being left behind. In this way the audience is then torn between feeling bad for Maggie at being mistreated, applauding Frederik for sticking it to her, demonizing Maggie for cheating at all, and hating Frederik for pursuing someone he knew he shouldn’t then shaming her.
It just creates a much more dynamic interaction and humanizes these two characters… instead of simply casting Frederik as an unreconcilable villain as the film currently does. As is, it’s a huge misstep and entirely distracting because the film is so centered on interesting human interactions… except for Frederik who is just so incessantly evil as to have no redeeming qualities at all. It makes him and everything he says or does entirely uninteresting.
Changing his character in this way also fixes a line he says that makes no sense in the current script:
“You told me that everything comes with a price. What will you pay?”
As is, this line makes no sense because, up to that point, we haven’t actually seen Frederik, Maggie, or Carsten lose anything that derails their dreams and… by the end, we still don’t. Without making Maggie’s reasonings more complex and giving Frederik some kind of stakes in the situation the current plot has a massive bump where it could otherwise be smooth and interesting.
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The missteps in Chloe’s writing are much more minor and less distracting, though still too subtle for the otherwise bombastic characters she’s surrounded by.
Because of her parents’ focus on achieving fame in the food world, Chloe is forced into the role of “Child-parent”. She is asked to look after her brother, expected not to make simple mistakes, and leaned on whenever her parents are busy tending their restaurant. She’s a “fixer”. This is all very interesting and a great part of the plot [possibly even the best part if properly fleshed out], but it’s not exactly communicated to the audience clearly enough or often enough to truly have an impact. Because we don’t have a deep connection to Chloe in this way, the reveal that she’s the catalyst for all of the night’s drama comes across as laugh-out-loud comedy, rather than heart-wrenching drama.
It would only take minor changes to add additional context to Chloe’s view of the world and how she’s being forced into a role she doesn’t entirely understand — a single extra scene where she has to manage something an 8-year old shouldn’t would suffice. In a more major way, the entire film should have been shot/ centered around Chloe; giving us her child’s perspective on the insanity of chasing these dreams and the sacrifices people are willing to make for ego.
In that context “a taste of hunger” means something different entirely… and something much more interesting.
However short some of Taste’s stunts are from sticking their landing, this is one to celebrate for its merits rather than loath for its foibles. It’s a drama that will move you, divide you, and have you both cheering for and scolding everyone on screen. Though I’m not entirely sure the reaction is intentional, it will even make you laugh and choke on your drink as certain elements are revealed. As Christoffer Boe’s 5th feature-length film, it’s difficult to say that A Taste of Hunger shows vision in the same way that I wave away other early work imbalances… but it is an intriguing piece and I do want to make space to watch his other pieces. Film is a kind of funny thing where we judge a person’s skills based on an incredibly small body of work… but that’s a discussion for another time.
A Taste of Hunger is a beautiful film with difficult characters, a focused and driven plot, and absolutely stunning production. It seems to have garnered almost no attention since its release, and I hope that I can change that at least a little. Be prepared to have some opinions on other people’s lives, sharpen your knives, and set your tables for A Taste of Hunger.
