Starring: Freddie Highmore, Victoria Hamilton, Ken Stott, Helena Bonham Carter Director: S.J. Clarkson Category: IIA
A charming and witty British coming-of-age comedy about food writer and cook Nigel Slater, Toast is a cinematic treat that reminds us of the magical and healing powers of food and, above all, love.
Adapted from Slater's memoir of the same name by Lee Hall, writer of Billy Elliot, the film begins with the nine-year-old Slater (Oscar Kennedy) looking at freshly picked veggies with starry eyes while his loving mother (Victoria Hamilton) insists on dining on only something out of a can.
This remarkable and comical opening scene sums up the theme of the movie: a young misfit craving for something he could never get from his family, which also includes an emotionally abusive father (Ken Stott) who is helpless amid his wife's deteriorating health and his son's frustrations.
Things go from bad to worse after Nigel's mother dies and his heartbroken dad finds a new love in Mrs Potter (Helena Bonham Carter), whose butt-shaking ways of mopping the floor and excellent culinary skills gradually move her up the family hierarchy from housekeeper to chef - and wife.
What follows is a culinary war between a chain-smoking stepmother and an adorable son (later played by Freddie Highmore, above right with Stott and Bonham Carter) as they strive to win over the heart of a man by filling his stomach with cakes and pies. The process is hilarious, and the result is deadly.