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What's Cooking?
Trimark Pictures


7.8

based on 22 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some sexuality, brief language and a perilous situation

Starring Alfre Woodard, Dennis Haysbert, Ann Weldon, Mercedes Ruehl, Julianna Margulies, Kyra Sedgwick, and Maria Carmen

You are invited to a tasty Thanksgiving dinner that will all at once transport you to four different worlds and take you home again. Coming together is the theme of What's Cooking?, Gurinder Chadha's funny, mouthwatering and deeply moving vision of 21st century diversity and the future of the American family - all set on Thanksgiving. (Trimark Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Paul Mayeda Berges Gurinder Chadha
DIRECTED BY:	Gurinder Chadha
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 10, 2001 Video: April 10, 2001 Theatrical: October 27, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	106 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK / USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

For so brisk and entertaining a film, sharp in its observations but light in its touch, Cooking has unexpected substance and is a formidable accomplishment in that it brings dimension to its nearly 40 principal characters.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Because the stories are so skillfully threaded together, the movie doesn't feel like an exercise: Each of the stories stands on its own.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

What makes this movie special is the meticulous attention placed on each of its characters, employing them not in the traditional "melting pot" manner that is so common, but as part of a grand mosaic that actually seems to be worth sharing.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Splendid acting, a screenplay as likable as it is unpredictable, and an undercurrent of deep human generosity make this a particularly engaging comic-dramatic experience.

Entertainment Weekly Ty Burr

Like the meal itself, the movie's both filling and familiar.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Her (Chadha) film tastily demonstrates that variety is the spice of not only American life, but of American cuisine.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

A big-hearted celebration of the we're-all-in-this- together American way.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Lighthearted and smart enough to be one of the best Altmanesque ensemble comedies of the last couple of years.

Variety Emanuel Levy

Though often enjoyable, it’s an old-fashioned, feel-good movie whose significance is more sociological than cinematic.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

It's a meal you may feel you've eaten before, but you nonetheless walk away stuffed and happy.

USA Today Staff [Not Credited]

More interesting as a sociological study than successful as a movie, What's Cooking? gets more involving as it strolls along.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This is ensemble work at its best.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

That director and co-writer Gurinder Chadha transforms this sitcom material into a lively and charming film about the melting pot at full boil probably owes something to the fact that her own multicultural bona fides are firmly in order.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

If Chadha never quite overcomes her cliches, her good-natured humor and familial faith gives it a warm, winsome dimension.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A seven-course melodrama.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

This concept comedy-drama would be even better if the intercutting among households had been timed to add dramatic content rather than simply advance the subplots.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

This good-hearted but undersupplied ensemble piece is only appetizer-deep.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

Despite some grace- ful performances, especially from Ruehl and Kazan, the result is a tepid repast at best.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Goes overboard in its presentation of supposed reality.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Like too many Thanksgiving dinners, too much squabbling really wreaks havoc on the digestion. Football, anyone?

Village Voice Amy Taubin

Trades in sitcom stereotypes and crosscuts predictably from family to family as if under the misapprehension that equal time is a dramatic principle.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

Hopefully, the next time around, Chadha's imagination will be in the service of not just excellent casting and directing, but a script to match those other cinematic components.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Rosie gave it an8:
This film has captured that typical family holiday stress that I grew up with. Though it seemed to be a bit over the top, it was a nice attempt at inclusion of a variety of families. It's worth seeing.

Leon S gave it a2:
Overated and predicatble.

Vanessa G. gave it a 9:
This film is great, because there are four different kinds of families present complex and sometimes comical American holiday themes. Also it's funny too.

Ed J. gave it a 9:
Very enjoyable. A refreshing, funny, honest view of a human situation!

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What's Cooking? Trimark Pictures

What's Cooking?
Trimark Pictures