The Kitchen stars Melissa McCarthy, Elizabeth Moss and Tiffany Haddish as wives of three Irish mobsters who get sent away to prison, but their husbands’ associates do not take care of them as promised so they decide to seize control of the business. Will they succeed, and if they succeed, what will they do if and when their husbands are released from prison? It is a period piece set in 1970s Hell’s Kitchen.
I was excited when I saw stills from The Kitchen last year, but when I saw the trailers closer to the release date, I realized that I may need to lower my expectations. When I went to the theater, I was in it for the unrelenting scene chewing, which I definitely got. I was hoping for the most over the top, ridiculous story possible and am still reciting lines from the film, but was it good? Sadly, no, but I still had fun.
I can’t tell if the problem with The Kitchen lies with the story telling because the rhythm was off or the studio yanked money, ordered them to cut some crucial scenes, but if a director’s cut is ever released, it will be phenomenal but flawed. My instinct tells me the latter, but who knows. I think there is a good movie in there, but someone lacked nerve and undermined the movie. It could have been a great movie that reached cult film status. It had the potential to appeal like The Rocky Horror Picture Show in terms of audience participation.
The Kitchen needed to really commit to the idea of an ensemble cast and rest its sympathies equally with all three women instead of trying to pull a M. Night Shylaman twist at the end of the movie, which is not set up well, and we’re talking about Shylaman so it isn’t necessarily an impossible goal to achieve. When the women initially team up and play smart by appealing to the neighborhood, it is exhilarating, but as it abandons that aspect of the business and turns its attention to internal power struggles, its reactionary impulses yank it back. It is obvious that the filmmakers’ heart rests with McCarthy’s character, Kathy, which means that the other two characters get shortchanged, intentionally or not. She is the most likeable of the bunch: a loving wife, a good mother, a fair boss and a tough cookie. Whether or not the filmmakers are conscious of it, they aren’t quite comfortable with the other two: an ambitious black woman and a battered woman embracing violence, played by Elisabeth Moss as Claire. The movie finds ways to punish them for straying too far from their accepted gender roles. The movie wants to see them do what the guys do, but then when they do it, the filmmakers flinch.
The Kitchen is a movie in conflict with what makes it great. The film theoretically wants equal opportunities for men and women, but when it tries to imagine what that world would look like, its imagination falters. My memory could be wrong, but I never forgot when Shannon O’Brien ran to become Governor of Massachusetts, and her father, Edward O’Brien failed to endorse. This film’s keenest desire is to get that respect and congeniality from men while enforcing certain gender roles for women when women take careers that normally are dominated by men, not for women to be complete human beings with flaws and vices that could make them unlikeable. Women aren’t really permitted to be villains. They have to be the giving tree even when they are mobsters. Anything beyond that framework makes the filmmakers nervous.
Apparently Haddish’s character, Ruby, was originally supposed to be a white woman, but race bending allowed the character to become a black woman. The Kitchen is an adaptation of a graphic novel, which I did not know going into the movie, and I have not read. (If I had known that it was a DC Comic, I may not have seen the movie at all so I’m glad that I didn’t.) While I applaud the bold casting decision, I’m not sure if the writers convincingly followed through when depicting her character on screen though they clearly gave thought to her belonging to a broader black community before descending to Hell’s Kitchen. The visual result and implication of this lack of follow through is a weird visual dissonance that undercuts the turn the tables vibe of the movie. Men bolster Kathy’s power, and Ruby is alone. If an organization ultimately relies on brute force to retain power, strategy and relationships will only take you so far, and only a woman like Claire could ultimately survive because she can play on all three fronts whereas Ruby and Kathy can’t.
By not showing Ruby’s power, it hurts the ultimate credibility of the story. It is as if it never occurred to anyone writing The Kitchen’s screenplay that at some point, it needed to become believable that after all the hard work was done, Ruby and/or Kathy would not be eliminated even by their closest allies. The film contemplates it, but never fully explores it and ultimately pulls punches. Claire’s journey feels complete in a way that Kathy and Ruby’s doesn’t. Kathy and Ruby outsource too much of their power to men, and I never bought that anyone would keep their agreement with them just on principle. I also don’t buy that once Kathy felt that you crossed a line and betrayed her that she would ever show mercy on that person again. Ruby’s story only makes sense if you use your imagination based on a few crumbs scattered throughout the film. For me, I kept making parallels to my Marvel Cinematic Universe regarding how Manhattan’s boroughs delineate power structures. I also kept expecting to see baby Matt, i.e. Daredevil, and his boxer dad to turn the corner.
I have so many questions about casting. Did The Kitchen purposely choose Domhnall Gleeson, a chameleon and great British actor, because he looked like he could be Claire’s sibling? I wanted more Annabella Sciorra, who had some memorable moments. I also don’t know if it is entirely believable that women married to powerful men would be sympathetic to other women who threaten their men’s power or wouldn’t be just as ruthless in shoring up their men’s power. I liked her character, but I think that Margo Martindale’s character is probably more realistic in a power structure like that even to this day. I know that he is a nice guy, but people need to stop giving acting jobs to Common. He can’t act, and you’re just hurting your movie. It isn’t worth it. Bill Camp is great as always in counterintuitive casting as an Italian mobster. There is this whole elaborate moment when the hookers are recruited then we see what they were hired to do, and it goes nowhere.
The Kitchen is fun, but not so bad that it is good again. I’d love to hear the real story behind the theatrical version. I’m still going to quote the movie at random moments and love the moments when the movie shined, but I’m lowkey mad at whomever the executive was who yanked the leash on the movie and wouldn’t let it be great.