Toast movie review

Toast

Toast (2010) is an biographical comedy drama, directed by  S.J. Clarkson and written by  Lee Hall and Nigel Slater.  It is based on the autobiographical novel Toast, written by English cookery writer, Nigel Slater.   It was originally a made for television movie first shown on BBC One. It was later released theatrically. The movie received a gala at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival.

The story was adapted for the stage in 2018 by Henry Filloux-Bennett. The play premiered at theWeek 53 Festival, then the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.  In 2019, the play opened in London at The Other Palace.  So, a very popular book and story in the U.K.

Young Nigel Slater (Oscar Kennedy) lives with his asthma ailing mother, (Victoria Hamilton) and his overworked, worried father, (Ken Stott).  The only thing his mother will cook is food in cans that can be boiled and then served.  Nigel dreams of eating delicious food made from scratch.  He tries to get his mother to teach him how to cook, but she is either too sickly to do so or just does not want to.  His father suffers as well from stomach aches, because they never eat well.  When his mother does not make the food well, she serves them both toast with butter on it, which is quite often.  Thus, the name of the subsequent book, movie and play, Toast.

After Nigel's mother passes away from her disease, Nigel attempts to cook a nice meal for his father.  His father comes home late after Nigel tries to keep reheating the meal.  He eats the meal anyway, even though it is burnt.  Seeing how hard Nigel was trying to make a good home cooked meal, his father hires a woman to cook and clean for them, Mrs. Potter (Helena Bonham Carter).  His father feels this will make Nigel happy.  Although Nigel welcomes her delicious meals and deserts, he sees her as competition for his father's affections.

As Nigel gets older, (Freddie Highmore), he decides to sign up for a cooking class in high school.  He starts bringing home his creations for his father to try.  The film alludes to Nigel wanting to compete with Ms. Potter, whom Nigel's father has now married after she divorced her husband.  So, Nigel and Mrs Potter now compete with their cooking to see whose dishes his father will like best.  As a result, his father gains a lot of weight trying to please them both.

We also go on a journey where Nigel discovers his sexuality as a homosexual.  You get the feeling that his father and mother knew he was gay from the start, which is probably why they tried to discourage his interest in cooking  When they find out the gardener, Josh (Matthew McNulty), has been changing his clothes in front of Nigel, they fire him, because Nigel mentioned his nudity to them.  Nigel is very upset, because Josh was his friend and only normal person in his world.

We get to take a look inside the life of Nigel Slater, a famous English chef.  We, of course, see all the events from his viewpoint, so the story may be a little skewed.   Yet, it shows us where his motivation for his ultimate life calling, becoming a world renowned chef at the Savoy Hotel, came from.  The real Mrs. Potter's children say that she and her husband, Nigel's father, were not portrayed correctly  Nigel Slater has never commented one way or the other to their accusations.  Yet, he wrote the book and movie script, so pretty sure this was how he saw it all go down.

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