After the celebrations of Father’s Day on Sunday, the residual sentiments of our love for our Daddys still reigns on. Heightened more so by a week to go till the theatrical release of Jon Favreau’s Chef (25th of June) which, at the core, focuses on the pivotal father-son relationship. Though the plot centres on restaurateur Carl Casper losing his business after a scathing review, as he tries to reconnect with his passion for food he also tries to piece together his estranged family, much more so with his son Percy.
To prove that fathers and sons are vital in cinematic viewing pleasure, to celebrate the release of Chef, let’s have a look at some of the most succulent of father-son recipes cooked up for the big screen.
Finding Nemo
Proving that Pixar holds the monopoly of tragic openings for their children’s movies, Finding Nemo is the much beloved and colourful animated movie that centres on a father clown fish on a mission after his son is kidnapped by a scuba diving dentist. Mentioning the opening is paramount, Marlon (the dad) lost most of his kids and his wife Coral after a larger predator ate them up. His protectiveness over Nemo is called into question when he must not only hunt him down through the Great Barier Reef with a ditzy fish named Dory, but he must learn how to allow Nemo to grow and make his own decisions.
The Pursuit of Happyness
Though we are a little bit sick of their cinematic ventures together after After Earth, Will Smith and his son Jayden’s pairing first enthused chemistry and stellar acting in this real life tale. The older Smith plays Chris Gardener, a salesmen who is out on is luck, homeless and struggling to find a job. Not only this, but he must protect his son, Christopher when they are thrown onto the streets. Though it is the epitome of feel good dramas, to get to the heart-warming end, you must battling through the pain. Gardener, in the movie, does everything for his son and the toilet scene is the most power, tear inducing moment.
To Kill A Mockingbird
Voted by the AFI as cinema’s greatest heroes, having a father like Atticus Finch is always going to mean that you have the best relationship with him. But truly Gem and Atticus have their relationship tested when the latter takes on a rape case, defending a black man in a purely racist town. Gem and his sister Scout become targets of abuse and even assault as Atticus stands his beliefs against the bigoted majority. Though there is violence against Gem, he comes to learn that Atticus is much more of a man than anyone he has met and that helps shape his moral backbone.
Beginners
Oliver Fields has his world rocked when his father Hal announces that he has terminal cancer and he is actually gay. In Mike Mills wonderful drama Beginners, Christopher Plummer’s Oscar Winning role is put against a brilliant Ewan McGregor has the pair not only navigate Hal’s dwindling life as it shifts and changes to be openly gay. McGregor and Plummer are outstanding together and Mills present a gorgeous poignant relationship in a timely and different independent flick that is both innovative and emotional. Beginners is an impeccable source of the complexities of growing old and watching your father reinvent himself.
Big Fish
This movie is possible one of Tim Burton’s best works and at the same time, is barely mentioned by the masses. What he does, is flip perception and translate the earnest stories of a dying father into the mystical and mythical fantasy epic. Though dancing Siamese twins, giants and fish haunt the majority of the screen time, the crux of the story comes from the intense and brilliant father and son relationship. Played by Albert Finney and Will Crudrup respectively, the son indulging in the magnificence of his father’s past as he lays dying is one of beauty and intense heart.
Chef is out June 25 and we’ll leave you with the official sizzling trailer for the film:
