Film: The Lunchbox

The Lunchbox has been top of the film list for these few days, and it was about time I saw it. I would've seen it on Monday, but Time Out recommended me a play instead, and I went to that. Still, I was glad to get to The Lunchbox, finally, today.

It has a limited release, and the nearest cinema showing it is the Gate, in Notting Hill. Now, that's one I really didn't have to look up how to get to. Only showing at 6.30, the Tube was more reliable than a bus in rush-hour traffic. And if you take the right exit, I know from experience that the Gate is right in front of you as you emerge. Actually, if you check the map before choosing an exit, the exits are numbered on it, and the Gate cinema is shown on it. So it's really easy. Leave by Exit 2, and the cinema sign looms high above you at street level.

The lady at the till assigned me a seat, and I went in. There's only one screen, so it's hard to get lost! Of course, someone was sitting in my seat. So I was happy to sit in the next row forward. This hadn't been booking heavily when I checked online, and I didn't think I'd be usurping anyone's place. Anyway, it turned out - it's been a while since I was here, and I didn't remember - that the screen is too small for the size of the venue, really, and the middle, which I'd requested, is a bit far back. This isn't the Electric Cinema - a few minutes' walk up the road, and the last cinema I visited in Notting Hill - but they do like their comfy cinemas in this part of town! My seat was fabulously comfortable, and they do have little shelves between every second pair of seats. And again, the ceiling was terrifically ornate! Long may Notting Hill cinemas thrive..

The Lunchbox is an Indian film, set in Mumbai. A young housewife, neglected by her husband, seeks to win his heart again by cooking him the best lunches she can manage, sent via the famous lunchbox delivery system, collected from the home and delivered to the husband, at his desk. But when, upon coming home, he mentions something she didn't cook, she realises that her lunches have, unusually, been misdirected! (There's a very funny scene where she argues with the delivery man, who's insistent that this is a world-famous system and is infallible.) Meantime, an older man, close to retirement, whose wife has died, notices that the lunches he's been ordering from a local restaurant have been improving in quality..

So one day she includes a note with the lunch, thanking the anonymous diner for finishing all the lunch she cooked, explaining that it was meant for her husband but has gone astray. He replies, sending back the tiffin box with another note, and they duly become pen pals.

Each finds an outlet for their loneliness in this exchange, and it makes for a completely charming, and very moving, film. As a co-worker of his remarks, upon seeing him reading a handwritten note - it's very old-fashioned in these days of email! And all the lovelier for it. Makes you hanker for those days, and for someone to write a letter to, and to receive one from. Well, of course, something of a relationship develops between them, and the ending is as ambiguous as can be. The best kind. Oh, and watch out for the commuting scenes, on the trains - reminiscent of London, really. Just no women, you'll notice!

Back to Ireland for Easter tomorrow. And heading to the Limerick Choral Union concert, at the University Concert Hall, Limerick on Friday, of which the highlight will be Mozart's Requiem. Looking forward to that..!