What`s Cooking? Review

Thanksgiving in America is one of those traditions that brings a family together over a table groaning with food....... the food?s easy in comparison to family problems and it seems every family has them...... By dipping in to the lives of four diverse middle class American families African American, German Jewish, Vietnamese and Latino British director and co-writer Gurinder Chadha is able to look at underlying themes of racial and gender intolerance. Mercedes Ruehl?s Elizabeth is at the heart of the Latino family, her husband ran off with her cousin some time ago but now he wants to come to Thanksgiving and make up, not realising that Elizabeth has another relationship on the boil...... in the German Jewish family the parents Laine Kazan and Maury Chaykin have a hard time accomodating the lesbian relationship of their daughter Kyra Sedgewick.... for the Nguyen family, the traditions of the mother Joan Chen are at odds with the contemporary lives of her children and in the African American home of Alfre Woodard and Denis Haysbert, concern for race issues is with the younger generation. In all these families the generations are at odds.......Gurinder Chadha?s first film Bhaji on the Beach had a ring of truth to it. With What?s Cooking? she?s delving into another society from the outside which ultimately leads her to rely far too much on rather cliched melodrama. The film is in many ways delghtful, the various treatments of turkey and the preparation of the side dishes is recreated with great affection. Despite a huge cast Chadha manages to cover each family coherently but performances vary from the excellent Mercedes Ruehl, Dennis Haysbert, Alfre Woodard and Maury Chaykin to some unconvincing ones from other cast members. This is a pleasant but not outstanding film.Comments From David StrattonA feel-good movie along fairly familiar lines, but director Gurinder Chadha proves again, as she did in her first film, Bhaji On The Beach, that she`s adept at depicting the differences and the similarities between cultures. A very confident film, with good performances and plenty of humour - but a bit sit commy, nonetheless.