The Kitchen review

THE KITCHEN: 

TALENTED LEADS GET TRAPPED IN A MOSTLY HALF-BAKED CRIME-THRILLER!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES AND NEW LINE CINEMA

Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss in The Kitchen

            Three housewives in 1978 Hell’s Kitchen take the Irish mafia to a whole new level in The Kitchen, the new crime-thriller directed by screenwriter Andrea Berloff (World Trade Center, Straight Outta Compton, Blood Father) in her directorial debut and based on the DC/Vertigo comic book miniseries of the same name. I’ve never read the original comics and have no idea how faithful it is to the source material, so I’ll be looking at this film on its own. 

            The movie looked promising by the trailers although it (slightly) looked reminiscent of last year’s female-centered heist film, Widows (By the way, I’m still pissed that the Academy snubbed that movie at the Oscars). You got three women living in crime ridden streets pulling off a dangerous heist or crime, it’s easy to see the similarities. 

            Nevertheless, it looked interesting to say the least and it features the talented trio of Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids,The Heat, Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip, The Last O.G., The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part), and Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men, Top of the Lake, Us) as the leads. While her comedy is hit-or-miss to me, McCarthy made an unexpected turn to the drama genre with 2014’s St. Vincent and last year’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? Which were unanimously praised for her performances in both films, clearly The Kitchen will be just as amazing as those right? Not quite. 

            While the film has its moments and the cast is clearly giving it their all, the end result is a clumsy, jumbled crime-thriller that can be entertaining while watching it, but you’ll most likely forget about it upon leaving the cinema. It isn’t as bad as most reviews are making it out to be, but it’s unremarkable and at times awkwardly executed.

            Set in 1978, the film follows three housewives of Hell’s Kitchen mobsters trying to make a living in one of the most aggressive neighborhoods in New York City. Kathy Brennan (McCarthy) has two children and her supportive husband Jimmy (Brian d’Arcy James-Spotlight, Molly’s Game, West Side Story (2020)) wants to leave the mob and set a better example, Ruby O’Carroll (Haddish) is married to Kevin (James Badge Dale-24, The Departed, Iron Man 3) who is the heir to the mob empire, and Claire Walsh (Moss) has the roughest life of them all being married to Rob (Jeremy Bobb-The Knick, The Drop, Marshall) who is constantly abusive towards her. However, when a convenience store robbery lands their husbands into prison for three years and the new heir to the mob empire barely giving their wives enough money to survive, Kathy, Ruby, and Claire make matters into their own hands and become mobsters themselves and unexpectedly proving themselves capable of anything from running the rackets to literally taking out the competition. 

            The film also stars Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter franchise, Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Revenant) as Gabriel O’Malley, Bill Camp (The Night Of, The Leftovers, Black Mass) as Alfonso Coretti, Margo Martindale (Million Dollar Baby, The Savages, Justified) as Helen O’Carroll, Common (Smokin’ Aces, Suicide Squad, John Wick: Chapter 2) as Gary Silvers, Annabella Sciorra (True Love, The Sopranos, Cop Land) as Maria Coretti, E.J. Bonilla (Guiding Light, Revenge, Unforgettable) as Gonzalo Martinez, James Ciccone (The Deuce, Joker, The Irishman) as Joe Goon, John Sharian (Death Machine, The Machinist, Patti Cake$) as Duffy, Stephen Singer (Don Juan DeMarco, Love Life, Obvious Child) as Herb Kanfer, and Brandon Uranowitz (Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Stage Fright, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as Shmuli Chudakoff.

            Overall, The Kitchen is a well-acted and serviceable but unfortunately misguided crime-thriller that may feature three talented and glamorous leads but without a compelling or interesting story the film treads familiar waters and reminds audiences of the other, better, crime films that inspired it. The film feels like it’s desperately trying to capitalize on the success of other female-centered crime/heist films like Ocean’s 8 and Widows but doesn’t really know how to add something unique to the story. 

            It’s a shame because a lot of good people worked on this movie, writer Andrea Berloff hot off the 2015 film, Straight Outta Compton directing her very first movie and Melissa McCarthy redeeming her “Summer of Annoyance” which consisted of Life of the Party and The Happytime Murders with the acclaimed Can You Ever Forgive Me? And the film is adapted from source material that would usually make for some great, intense movies. I have no idea what happened to it whether studio interferences or drama behind the scenes, but the end result is a mediocre, uninspired crime-drama that might be enjoyable to pass the time at best.

            Some of the character motivations make sense like McCarthy trying to provide for her family or Moss getting away from her abusive husband, but other times the reasonings behind the women becoming mob bosses come out of nowhere with no time to explain why. Going back to Widows, the reason behind the heist was to finish what their deceased husbands started otherwise the mob would kill them, in the second half without giving much away Haddish’s character becomes a little too full of herself and almost becomes an antagonist to take power as a black woman, but it’s so out of the blue that the film doesn’t give much time to develop that sub-plot.

            What keeps this average crime film afloat are the performances by Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss, all three of them are giving it their all. To the cast’s credit nobody is really half-assing a performance except for maybe a slightly hammy performance by Myk Watford (Spider-Man, The Hoax, No Country for Old Men) as the new mob leader Little Jackie. 

            The Kitchen may keep you entertained as an intense time-killer with some talented actors and a kickass soundtrack consisting of classic 70s tunes, but there isn’t much substance here to make much of an impression. Not the worst “Kitchen” but an uninteresting one that could really use some renovations.