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Toast
  • Studio: W2 Media
  • Release Date: Sep 23, 2011
Toast Image
Metascore
57 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critics What's this?

User Score
4.1 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 8 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Summary: No ordinary boy, Nigel, laps up cookbooks, spending all his time gazing longingly at the delights on offer in Percy Salt’s grocers. Nigel’s father, meanwhile, worries that there is something “wrong” with his son and the two find it difficult to connect. Nigel finds it far easier relating to Josh, the gardener, who teaches Nigel about the wonders of nature as they sit munching freshly picked radishes and pork pies. After Nigel’s mother dies, leaving Nigel and his father heartbroken, the two struggle on fuelled by cheese on toast, until a saucy new cleaner who makes lemon meringue pies to die for, (played with gusto by Helena Bonham Carter), arrives. She sets her sights on Nigel’s father, and cooking soon becomes the key weapon in the battle between then for his father’s affections. (Emerging Pictures)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 10
  3. Negative: 1 out of 10
  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Gary Goldstein
    Oct 9, 2011
    80
    By turns sweet and tart, airy and rich and, above all, a thoroughly irresistible confection.
  2. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    Sep 23, 2011
    50
    Based on a memoir by Nigel Slater, a British celebrity chef who makes a cameo appearance, Toast also charts the budding chef's growing interest in hunky, scantily clad guys. Be warned: Some of the regional British accents would benefit from subtitles.
  3. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    Oct 13, 2011
    38
    I could pile on the cooking metaphors until you cried "uncle," but the fact remains that there's a very good movie in here that its makers have failed to bring off.

See all 10 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 2 out of 3
  1. RunningOnion
    4
    有時，裝飾確實可以搶救一部薄弱的電影，不過，我們關心的是強而有力的戲，而且觀眾到戲院來是為了相信，為了回應那句神奇的，充滿想象的「很久很久以前.....」，不是來看白霜檸檬塔的。… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. CitizenCharlie
    2
    Here is how I imagine this hypothetical sequence of events. Screenwriter Lee Hall, best known for the Billy Elliot script, sat down and read Nigel Slater’s autobiography. Hall loved it so much that he sat down and turned it into a screenplay named Toast. This is not unusual since the main characters in Billy Elliot and Toast are very similar. BBC One bought it instead of a film studio which should be clue number one that Toast was not going to be a potential Billy Elliot sequel. They hired a director, S.J. Clarkson, mostly known for directing TV episodes on both side of the pond such as EastEnders and Dexter. Most surprising and most perplexing, the BBC and the Toast script were able to attract acting talent, most notably Helena Bonham Carter. What did Carter see in this script? She took time out of her life the very same year both Alice in Wonderland and The King’s Speech hit theaters to slap on ill-fitting kitchen attire and help bring the life and times of Nigel Slater to the world. Nigel Slater is a British food writer most notably for the Observer and previously for Marie Clair. He was born in the Midlands to repressed, but somewhat wealthy, parents who did not dedicate much time and effort into the domestic side of life. Nigel’s mother played by Victoria Hamilton seems to have no experience in the kitchen whatsoever as she puts actual cans of food into boiling water and at the same time sucks on an inhaler to indicate to Nigel and the audience that something is not quite right. Nigel’s father, Ken Stott, disappears to some sort of job during the day and returns home with few kind words for his son and prances on eggshells around his wife. When he tells Nigel to do something, the reason behind it is usually, “Do it for your mother” although Nigel cannot quite make sense of why eating a miserable ham would benefit his mother very much. Most conversations between Nigel and his father end in the exclamation, “You stupid, ignorant boy.” Not surprisingly at all given the overt setup, Nigel’s mom dies early in the film and then men are left to their own selves. This does not last very long before Helena Bonham Carter shows up as Mrs. Potter, the new house cleaner. Nigel sees straight away that the lady from local council housing has set her eyes on their nice house and well to do Mr. Slater. She goes above and beyond mere cleaning; she starts to darn socks and even cook. The allure and mysteries of cooking are a subplot so far as Nigel has never seen anyone make a proper meal before but is wise enough to recognize and agree with the axiom, “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Mrs. Potter knows this proverb all too well. Pies, turkeys, and potatoes all start to regularly appear on their dinner table, items which had never been there before. Nigel begins home economics training, at the expense of his popularity, to match wits with Mrs. Potter in the kitchen. His motivation for doing so is not clear. Is it jealousy for his father’s affection? Does he despise Mrs. Potter so much that the one way he thinks he can get her fired is to be a better cook than she is? The Mrs. Potter character is one of the main reasons Toast is a truly horrible film. In Nigel’s eyes, she is the epitome of evil; however, to every other rational human being and the audience, she is a normal woman who truly seems to take a shine to his father and even Nigel himself, although he is a true brat to her every chance he gets. She may latch on to the possibility of climbing the social ladder a bit too readily, but she is not mean. She shoulders all of the domestic responsibilities of the home and never once hits little Nigel and never even gets in a shouting match with him. Nigel’s hostility wears on the audience very quickly and after a bit, just seems tired and out of place. Nigel is played by newcomer Oscar Kennedy as an eight year old and by Freddie Highmore (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland) as a teenager. His animosity never recedes and by the end, I was absolutely fed up with watching him. The interactions between Nigel and his father and between Nigel and Mrs. Potter do not work. I am incredulous that anyone, especially an actress of Helena Bonham Carter’s caliber, would read this script and agree it would be a good idea to turn it into a film. Stay away from Toast at all costs. Even though it is based on an autobiography, it is ridiculous, monotonous, and worst of all, despising all of the characters on the screen is no way to enjoy a film. In fact, Toast is a film to endure rather than to enjoy.… Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  3. nohobobo
    1
    Wow. How could anyone give this a good review? Gary Goldstein, etc. should get their heads checked. The relationships between the characters are completely underdeveloped and contradictory, I had no empathy for anyone in the movie. How could characters based on real people be so one-dimensional and phony? Nigel is an unlikable brat, the father is a complete cartoon character, and the mother is an unloving zombie. My wife cries for almost every movie, but not for this supposed "tear jerker".… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes