What's Cooking? (2000)

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

"What's Cooking?" is one of the most overlooked films in history! The powerhouse actors portraying gentle characters were magnificent. The way the stories perfectly combined shocked me, and the movie kept me very intrigued and put a smile on my face all way through. In LA, on Thanksgiving day, four multi-cultural families deal with their dysfunctional relatives.In the Avila family, a Hispanic-American clan, Elizabeth's (Mercedes Ruehl) son, Anthony (Douglas Spain), invites his estranged father Javier (Victor Rivers) to dinner. Meanwhile, her daughter Gina (Isidra Vega) has invited her boyfriend Jimmy (Will Yun Lee), who is Chinese.In the Nguyen family, an Asian-American clan, Trinh (Joan Chen) is always in a battle with her daughter Jenny (Kristy Wu), who has found a gun under the bed of her brother's (Brennan Louie) bed.In the Williams family, an African-American clan, Audrey's (Alfre Woodard) **SPOILER** husband Ronald (Dennis Haysbert) was having an affair at work. Meanwhile, their estranged son Michael (Eric George) has quit college and come home for Thanksgiving, to celebrate with Grandma Williams (Ann Weldon) and the Moore family (Shareen Mitchell, Gregory Itzin, Mariam Parris).In the Seelig family, a Jewish-American clan, Rachel's (Kyra Sedgwick) parents (Lainie Kazan, Maury Chaykin) can't deal with her being a lesbian with Carla (Julianna Margulies), and must hide the secret from Aunt Bea and Uncle David (Estelle Harris, Ralph Manza).I must begin by saying all of the principle actors, except Kristy Wu and Julianna Margulies, did an amazing job.Mercedes Ruehl gave a stunning performance as Elizabeth, a woman who couldn't go back to her cheating husband. Douglas Spain and Isidra Vega did excellent work in their supporting roles, while Will Yun Lee brought smiles to your face all the time.Joan Chen was magnificently wonderful as a Vietnamese woman who wants to stick to her Asian customs. Kristy Wu is a terrible actress, but her acting doesn't rain on this parade of a movie. Brennan Louie had a truly minor role, so there's not much I can say about him.Alfre Woodard was so damn amazing that I was about to lose my mind, she was really good. Dennis Haysbert was nothing out of the ordinary, but decent. Eric George had a very minor role also, but he did good. Ann Weldon was very entertaining and I would have loved to see more of her. Gregory Itzin and Mariam Parris had small roles, but Shareen Mitchell, in the small amount of time she was on, was jaw-dropping amazing and a huge scene stealer! Kyra Sedgwick is a great actress and she really pulls this role off. Lainie Kazan and Maury Chaykin are absolutely flawless—there's no way you can't love them. Julianna Margulies did a horrible job. She was obnoxious, stupid, and one-dimensional. Estelle Harris and Ralph Manza had small roles, but they acted them out hilariously.I must say the writers of the film handled each family very well, never giving the audience too much of one. Thanksgiving is a difficult time and just because it's Thanksgiving now—not everything is all happy and peachy. The film portrayed that message greatly.The most intriguing family was the Williams one. It had very well-put together plot lines and it was delightful to watch the actors, because they all did wonderful. They were the sort of 'perfect' family that had it's problems revealed piece by piece.The next most intriguing family was the Seelig one. Kyra Sedgwick was the glue of it and everyone, except Julianna Margulies like said before, turned in really good performances. The lesbian issue is handled very well and there are some gentle scenes of joy.The third most intriguing family out of the four was the Avila one. Mercedes Ruehl left a huge impression in her role and so did every single person that had anything to do with the Avila plot. The story-line is interesting, although at times there are senseless scenes.The least intriguing family is the Nguyen one. It's the least intriguing, but still very intriguing. Joan Chen's performance raises it to a solid 8 on my list and the supporting cast, besides the intolerable Kristy Wu, did great. The stories were a bit dramatized, but it was still good.ALL IN ALL: "What's Cooking?" is my favorite movie of 2000 and if there's only one movie you can see from that year…make it this one! It's Flawless! 10 Thumbs Up (Out Of 10)

Incredible how they got the issues around Asian-American right, and African-American right, and Jewish-American right. Very, very perceptive and well done! The Asian American issues with the girl and the mother are very well done and so true to life. Same with the problems with the African American father and his son--and his mother. the Latin-American wife-husband-boyfriend problem was exceptional. So many things about the Jewish American were absolutely true. and mixing up the gay-lesbian thing with the Jewish family was perfect. it was a bit unrealistic that even in l.a. all these people live within hearing distance of each other, and that was the only contrived element of the movie. Wasn't there some other way around that?

Here's my two cents.The director gave admirable attempt in trying to give us four different point of views on a typically American tradition, and it has it's share of entertaining moments. But somehow it fell short of my expectations. It gave us four ethnic families, but failed to give us some depth to the material. The film's take on issues is often too shallow to serve any lasting, meaningful merit on such an important cultural topic.What most critics failed to see is that the truth is, most people have very little idea about many other cultures in this world. So we just accept what we see on the screen. Perhaps this contributed to the flawed script, which pigeonholed the families into what we might expect from families of African, Hispanic, Jewish, and Vietnamese decent. Mind you, it seems though that the writers are trying to be as politically correct as possible, and the genuine attempt on being culturally diverse (which many people appreciated, including me), the film is marred slightly by the lack of true, unbiased understanding of different cultures. Hence, the result looks like a bunch of families living out their stereotyped stigma. I loved one scene around the African-American dinner table, where the girl reminded everyone that today their families can enjoy eating Turkey, but at the cost of real Americans who suffered colonialism. It was the best scene of the film, and unfortunately it was a very short scene.The script needs a bit of polish, and has only touched the tip of a bigger iceberg. But nonetheless, this is a very enjoyable film. Highly recommended.

You know i usually like to see a film at least twice before i say anything about it...i love the way you take something different out of it every time. This time...theres no need...but i WILL be off to see this one again if not again :) I admit i knew little of What's Cooking and to be honest i like it that way. Going into a film with no pre-conceptions. I guess i expected a fairly average 'done before' story line and boring underdeveloped characters. Well...scene one...i was sold..this movie is fantastic.I love the way that What's Cooking draws on a somewhat universal experience- in Thanksgiving, while at the same time highlighting that this one day is so very different for people. It chose to show this difference across a spectrum of cultral backgrounds: The Asian family struggling with tradition, the Hispanic family dealing with a family breakdown; the African-American family facing infidelity and rebellion and the Jewish family struggling with conformity. Strangely through such different stories it was plain to draw something from each one and relate back to your own experiences. This i think was one of the strongest points of this movie....it deals with something that most people are familiar with. Holidays with family that we love to hate and hate to love! The holidays that we can't wait to end but then can't wait for them to come around again. Even in the music score this was reflected (listen for the 'same but different' tune!)differently by all but still in many ways the same.The characters were perfect..you felt you knew them- again i think it comes down to relating back to your own experiences... You could take something from each one. I think that he cast was brilliant. I couldn't single out a single performance..this one was a team effort that paid off in a big way. Of the whole movie i would pick maybe one scene that seemed 'off'. The revelation at the Jewish table seemed to be played a little out of context of the characters. It just didn't seem right i guess but other than that i loved everything about this flick! i loved the movie, i loved that it wasn't predictable, i loved the music, the feel, the atmosphere, humour and warmth. It's not very often that you go to a movie and sit for the whole time with a smile on your face and if it wasnt that in this one it was an equally moving emotion. The best way to sum up this cleverly structured peoples piece is that it is incredibly warm. I had tears in my eyes for practically the whle film from laughter, fear, anticipation, sadness or a little bit of everything all at once! That in itself signifies the imense depth this film created from its inocent simplicity of just looking at life and people at their best and worst! I liken it in many ways to 'Playing By Heart' in its structure and insight into everyday people issues, but this film was far better in its reach to the audience and more powerful and sublte in its storyline. One of the best i've seen