"Soul Kitchen" is a Greek-German comedy set in motion when a customer at a fancy restaurant complains that his gazpacho is cold and the chef is fired when he refuses to heat it. Filled with slapstick and a cast of sympathetic and comical people, it's too long and not quite funny enough, but there are many delightful moments.
Zinos (Adam Bousdoukos, who also co-wrote) runs a large but shabby restaurant in the port of Hamburg. Rock musicians hang out there. So do dock workers, criminals, prostitutes and others from the fringes of society. The bar is busy. The food is second-rate but the plates are full. Zinos is agonizing, however, over the fact that his wealthy girl friend, Nadine (Pheline Roggan) is about to go to Shanghai to take a job as a foreign correspondent. In his search to find someone to take over while he follows her, he finds Shayn (Birol Unel), a chef looking for a spot where he can serve gazpacho the way it's supposed to be. Shayn starts serving food of a higher style and a more handsome presentation, but the customers rebel. Zinos and Nadine communicate via Skype, making love via long-distance internet.
Then Ilias (Moritz Bleibtreu), Adam's brother arrives, freshly released from prison where he's serving a term for burglary but is on a strange "partial parole." He wants a job, but in name only.
And things go on from there. Ilias falls for Lucia (Anna Bederke), Adam's waitress and the hardest-drinking person in many movie years. There's also Socrates (Demir Gokgul), a bearded philosopher who lives in part of the building not used for food storage or customers. The story, written by Bousdoukos and director Fatih Akin, is predictable and raucous, with lots of action, increased when the chef adds an aphrodisiac powder to the desserts.
Soul Kitchen opens today at the Tivoli
—Joe