If you’ve ever had a job in a busy restaurant kitchen, you’ll know what a unique working environment it is. One which feels like organised chaos, at peak times, and only works if all the different members of the team pull together, in tandem. This requires each individual to know what they’re doing and understand where they fit into the larger unit. This cohesion is difficult to capture on screen, but Boiling Point nails it.
Andy (Stephen Graham) arrives at work for a busy night shift with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He’s been so busy trying to find somewhere to live that he’s completely forgotten a promise he made to his young son. Fraught and frazzled, he’s hardly slept and needs a drink and a little something extra to perk him up. Andy discovers that his former boss and celebrity chef Alistair Skye (Jason Flemyng) has booked a table, which he could really do without.
Boiling Point is a tense and jittery drama which plays out like a thriller. This is accomplished through great direction (Philip Barantini) and an outstanding central performance from Graham. He is the livewire fulcrum which the rest of the cast pivot around. The immersive and febrile atmosphere of front and back of house is captured skilfully using a single-take. It is perhaps a little too long for its own good, but Boiling Point gives its audience no time to breathe. Transporting them into the confrontational and high-pressured world of haute cuisine.
Boiling Point is out in cinemas from 7 January.
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