British period piece import Toast, playing at a handful of Laemmle theaters in Los Angeles this weekend as part of their “From Britain With Love” series, is a well-acted if somewhat meandering and pedantic coming-of-age story, based on the memoir of Nigel Slater, a popular English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. Fans of EastEnders and all other sorts of across-the-pond television, as well as kitchen-sink dramas in general, will find reward in the detail and clarity of this tale.

The movie opens in Wolverhampton in the late 1960s, where nine-year-old
Nigel (Oscar Kennedy, quite superb and sympathetic) lives with his
mother (Victoria Hamilton) and father (Ken Stott). Nigel seems bright
and curious, about food in particular, but neither of his parents seem
to understand him very much. A plaintive voiceover tells us he’s “never
had veggies that weren’t from a tin,” and his mother not only
discourages any culinary adventurousness but also seems basically
clueless in the kitchen. (The film takes its title for the default
family dinner when things get burned, or Nigel’s mom forgets to open
cans before boiling beans.)

Nigel tries his hand at cooking, but
as his mom falls ill with an inoperable respiratory condition, the
family falls apart. When she passes, Nigel is left alone with his
father. Until, that is, housekeeper Joan (Helena Bonham Carter) sets her
romantic sights on him, targeting his heart via his stomach. Flash
forward more than a couple years and Nigel, now a teenager (Finding Neverland‘s Freddie
Highmore, above), feels even more isolated, having moved away from his friends
and out to the country. Joan, as ever, still holds sway over Nigel’s
father, and they eventually wed. But, emboldened by a home economics
class at school, Nigel makes plans to pursue his culinary interests more
fully, and “out-cook” his un-matronly nemesis, thus winning over his
father.

If one wasn’t familiar with the fact that Toast was based
on a true story, one could easily intuit that from the movie’s faults.
The adaptation, by Billy Elliot screenwriter Lee Hall, aims righteously
for adolescent feeling, and has a capable enabler for that mission in
neophyte Kennedy. The problem is that Toast feels rather scattershot in
its focus and tone, and doesn’t successfully identify a main problem or
conflict. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. (BBC Films/Ruby Film & TV, unrated, 96 minutes)