Consuming Passions Reviews

Based on a stage piece by Monty Python members Palin and Jones, and performed by a strong cast of British actors, CONSUMING PASSIONS should have been a much better film. Unfortunately the screenplay, cowritten by Zimmerman (KING OF COMEDY) and Davies, is very weak, and the direction by first-timer Foster is deadeningly dull. A black comedy attacking rampant capitalism, the film follows young "junior management trainee" Butterworth as he arrives for his first day on the job at Chumley's Chocolate Factory. It's a big day for Burtterworth, who has absolutely no self-confidence and is totally inept at everything he tries. As for Chumley's, it's been taken over by a giant corporate conglomerate. Assigned to turn the unprofitable subsidiary around is Pryce, a long-haired British yuppie who concentrates all his efforts on advertising while Jones sits helplessly by and watches his beloved natural sweets turned into synthetic, mass-produced confectioneries. Meanwhile, the bumbling Butterworth wanders into the factory and accidentally knocks three workers into a huge vat of swirling chocolate. Before he can shut down the assembly line, the three men are processed into hundreds of bite-sized Passionelles, Chumley's new line of sweets. A test batch containing human flesh is shipped out to a small seaside town and becomes a new taste sensation. Trouble brews, however, when one of the dead worker's widows (Redgrave) turns to blackmail. Basically a comic sketch stretched out to feature length, the script and direction are both plodding, with little in the way of comedic timing or satiric insight. Plot twists are telegraphed far in advance of occurrence, and most of the humor is monotonously repetitive. Despite the superior cast, the performances are a dull collection of fussy facial tics, leers, and funny accents repeated ad nauseam. The material cries out for the manic lunacy of the Monty Python troupe and the wild direction of Terry Gilliam. Alas, what we are left with is a bad script envisioned by a bad director, both of which conspire to destroy the efforts of a good cast.