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The Lunchbox

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Rent The Lunchbox on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Warm, affectionate, and sweet but not cloying, The Lunchbox is a clever crowd-pleaser from first-time director Ritesh Batra.

Critics Reviews

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Ritesh Batra

Irrfan Khan

Saajan Fernandes

Nimrat Kaur

Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Aslam Shaikh

Denzil Smith

Bharati Achrekar

Mrs. Deshpande

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Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the lunchbox: old school anonymity softens new world discontent.

Only a few times in my life have I wanted to re-watch a movie right away. Ritesh Batra ’s first feature, “The Lunchbox” (2013) hooked me within the first act. Imagine the life you live, when a short note of a few lines becomes your daily thrill. Here, we follow the quiet lives of disconnected people reaching across the urban noise of Mumbai, reaching for anyone who would listen. Centering around food, its is a seamless fusion of Satyajit Ray and Nora Ephron , with hints of Akira Kurosawa . Overall, it reminds me that as our cities get more crowded, we get more lonely.

Ila ( Nimrat Kaur ) cooks lunch for her mostly absent husband ( Nakul Vaid ). An aunty ( Bharati Achrekar ) mentors her on cooking from the apartment above. Through cooking, she mentors her on life, always ready with the perfect recipe for every situation. Ila packs the daily lunch, and hands it over to a delivery man who takes it to a brigade of trains and bicyclists, to her husband’s desk. One day, however, the lunch reaches a stranger.

Saajan ( Irrfan Khan ) sits at a large desk in a large firm, processing claims with that mechanical, abrasive coldness of Kenji Watanabe (from “ Ikiru ”). Set for retirement, he must train the new-hire, the obsequious Shaikh ( Nawazuddin Siddiqui ), who keeps barging into his personal space. Saajan has his noon meal delivered through a local service, but today he receives Ila’s box, as he does tomorrow, and the next day.

Through these lunchboxes, Ila sends short letters to Saajan, first commenting that the lunches are for her husband, not him. He responds, first commenting on her cooking, which is one day tasty, and another too salty. In these short correspondences, they share reflections, then secrets, then hopes, looking forward to the daily note hiding in the tin, rather than considering the food itself. Those two minutes become the highlight of the day for them, freeing them from the mundane routines.

The big city speaks through the mix of human chatter and motor vehicles. Beneath the sounds, it relies on stability through bureaucracy, which itself relies on the enforcement of routine. Day after day. Week after week. Fiscal year after fiscal year. Two generations ago, in Ray’s “Mahanagar” (1963) families sought to join the industrial machine. To become part of the system is to have income, which yields a good life. Now, as the same machine compresses people together, allowing them to get lost as anonymous voyeurs, lost in experiments in disloyalty (including emotional and physical affairs), this current generation seeks to escape to something fulfilling, perhaps in the world of old.

Iñárritu explored such urban loneliness in “ Babel ” (2006), connecting disparate peoples across the world through the passing and use of a rifle. In that film, the characters were unable to communicate, resulting in a crowded world full of language barriers and silences. In Mendes’ “ Revolutionary Road ” (2008), we watch a couple fantasize about the American Dream, first as a way to find direction, then as a way to avoid reality. In Bahrani’s “Man Push Cart” (2005) we watch New Yorkers meeting for bagels and coffee, meeting for drinks, while maintaining a distance from each other. In Ephron’s movies, we follow couples who meet via distant relationships before letting fate bring them together. Here, we watch one man who grieves through Bollywood reruns, a woman who longs for a smile from the husband who seems to drown himself in work, an orphan who hustles his way through his projects and marriage, and exhausted dutiful women who stay by their ill husbands’ bedsides. In all of these cases, we see yearning; unquenched thirst for something as simple as a hug. We witness so many relationships, so many smiles, yet so much loneliness.

Part of the joy in this film is the wholesome goodness of almost all the characters. I like watching them because—even the ones with sharp edges in their dispositions—they lack malice. Rather, they are contending with a system far, far greater than them, be it the impositions of city life, or something even greater, like mortality.

Further, a few points in Batra’s work really stand out. He directs eyes so well, as each of the characters think and process. Kaur pauses. Her eyes glance from side to side as she reflects. Khan’s eyes have a fixed, reserved expression in every moment. Siddiqui stares, grinning. His script bounces so well across time within scenes adding dimensions to moments already emotive. The characters relish in flourishes, in the way they might chew words before speaking, or fold their legs as they sit, or even close a window. Those extra steps give this film a life that in other movies might be distracting. Here, the film takes its time to unfold each scene slowly, in an environment always reliant on speed.

And that slow, deliberate unfolding recalls the film’s implicit lesson: take a moment to give or receive a favor, enjoying the taste in every morsel. Better than that, cultivate your relations, with old school care and compassion. Otherwise, as we race against time, we always lose.

Omer M. Mozaffar

Omer M. Mozaffar teaches at Loyola University Chicago, where he is the Muslim Chaplain, teaching courses in Theology and Literature. He has given thousands of talks on Islam since 9/11. He is also a Hollywood Technical Consultant for productions on matters related to Islam, Arabs, South Asians.

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Movie Reviews

A meet-cute romance with a delicious twist.

Bob Mondello

Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is a Mumbai housewife who accidentally begins a correspondence with another man when the lunch she packs for her own husband goes astray. Sony Pictures Classics hide caption

The Lunchbox

Directors: Ritesh Batra
Genre: Drama, Romance
Running time: 104 minutes

Rated PG for thematic material and smoking

With Irrfan Khan , Nimrat Kaur , Nawazuddin Siddiqui

In Hindi with subtitles

When people talk about Bollywood movies, they usually mean Indian romances with extravagant musical numbers. But there are smaller Indian films, too, and one that has earned international acclaim at film festivals is opening tomorrow in major U.S. cities. It's called The Lunchbox .

We're in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, where a middle-aged man is about to get a very tasty surprise at work: A devoted young wife — not his — has packed her husband's daily lunchbox with an amazing-looking Indian meal, and sent it to him by way of an only-conceivable-in-India delivery service.

The opening sequence shows Ila (Nimrat Kaur) packing a home-cooked meal into a tower of metal containers called a tiffin, then putting this "lunchbox" into an insulated cloth bag. The idea is to get it to her husband's office hot, and he's already at work.

Watch The Trailer

So she hands it to a bike messenger, who ties it to the dozen lunchboxes he's already carrying and pedals it to a train, where it joins dozens more lunchboxes on their way to a truck, which zips them to a cart, where they're sorted so they can be raced through downtown traffic to a big office building, where Ila's lunchbox and a lot of others are carried by hand to individual desks.

Not the right desk, in this case: Ila's lunchbox lands on the desk of Sajaan, an accountant. And as soon as you see the wonderful actor Irrfan Khan reacting to the aroma, you realize this guy is not Ila's husband.

When the tiffin comes back empty, but her own spouse doesn't say a word about the meal, Ila realizes he never got it. So she sends a note with the next lunch, thanking whoever did receive it for paying her the great compliment of sending it back empty, and telling him she enjoyed believing for a few short hours that the way to her husband's heart really was through his stomach.

Sajaan replies: "Dear Ila, your husband sounds like a busy man." And soon the notes between them turn into a conversation of sorts. First about food, then about old TV shows, and after a while, talk about daily life that starts to seem like something more.

"When my wife died, she got a horizontal burial plot," Sajaan writes. "I tried to buy a burial plot for myself the other day, and what they offered me was a vertical one. I spend my whole life standing in trains and buses, and now I'll have to stand even when I'm dead. Why don't you have another child? Sometimes having a child can help a marriage."

The Lunchbox is a first feature for director Ritesh Batra, but it nicely captures the almost overwhelming crush and noise of contemporary India, and it plays cleverly and delicately with the tension of whether its two correspondents might eventually meet. Theirs is one "virtual" romance that has nothing to do with social media.

In fact, it's hard to imagine a less high-tech way of keeping in touch than through Mumbai's dabbawallahs — an army of white-capped lunchbox deliverymen who, with little or no paperwork to back them up, somehow manage, every weekday, rain or shine, to match up thousands of workers with the meals their loved ones have prepared. A Harvard management study says almost no lunchboxes ever go astray. Audiences are going to be very happy that this one did.

The Lunchbox Review

Director Ritesh Batra gives us a thoroughly inventive and grounded drama/romance, with superb performances by Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur.

(Reviewer's Note: The film was screened at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles)

Every year, when the AFI Fest comes around, I try my best to carve out a schedule that allows me to see as many films as possible, some of which are on my radar, some which are not. The Lunchbox was only mildly on my radar, after Sony Pictures Classics picked it up out of Cannes for a 2014 release, but, despite all of its acclaim, I wasn't sure if this would be up my alley or not. Thankfully, I gave this a shot last weekend, and was rather impressed by this endearing premise and superb performances by Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur.

I'll just put it out there: I'm not a huge fan of big-screen romances, because most follow the same sort of intrinsic playbook that brings us to the same conclusion as every other rom-com or rom-dram. While The Lunchbox is rooted in the same sort of sentimentality that has made Nicholas Sparks adaptations so big on this side of the pond, it is fueled by a terrifically unique conceit, centered on the amazingly efficient lunchbox delivery system in Mumbai, India, and the one mistake that brings two people together.

The film actually opens by showing the rather amazing process of how this delivery system works, as we follow the green lunchbox prepared by Ila (Nimrat Kaur), who hopes the special meal she made for her husband (Nakul Vaid) might actually cause him to notice her at home. However, the lunchbox ends up on the desk of Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Kahn), a dour, solitary man who has worked at an insurance agency for the past 35 years. When Ila realizes that her meal went to the wrong person, she writes a note to this mystery man, as they both begin to share their life stories through hand-written notes over lunch.

While the story gets a bit muddled in the third act, Ritesh Batra delivers in an incredibly impressive feature debut, showing the poise and confidence in his no-frills plot in the same way that made American filmmakers like Alexander Payne and Tom McCarthy so beloved by indie cinefiles. In fact, the film shares a lot of similiarities with Payne's fantastic 2002 drama About Schmidt, which starred Jack Nicholson as a man unsure of how to spend the rest of his life, after his wife passes away. Irrfan Kahn's Saajan Fernandes is very much in a similar situation, as we watch his routine and rather uneventful life unfold from day to day, without anyone to share it with after his wife's passing. However, much like Schmidt's wife's passing was a catalyst to jump-start his life again, the notes Saajan shares with Ila causes him to break out of his hardened shell a bit, as he opens up to the bubbly accountant Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) he is training before retirement.

Also, much like the films of Alexander Payne and Tom McCarthy, Batra gives us healthy portions of humor along the way as well, particularly from Ila's never-seen and often-heard upstairs neighbor Mrs. Deshpande (Bharati Achrekar), who doles out hilarious advice and wisdom to Ila, while passing ingredients for her lunches through a basket. We also get plenty of humor in the initially-icy relationship between Saajan and the eternally-optimistic Shaikh.

This is one of those films where, the more I think about it, the more I like it. There is just so much to enjoy here, from the outstanding performances by Irrfan Kahn, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, to Ritesh Batra's multi-layered storytelling, and so much in between.

There's a moment in the film when Ila confronts the delivery man, saying that her lunchbox is going to the wrong place. Her accusation is met with hilarious disdain, with the delivery man citing a Harvard study that only one lunchbox in 1 million goes astray, as he refuses to admit that a mistake has been made. That one in a million mistake brings two vastly different lives together in a refreshing way, without all the syrupy bullsh*t and heavy-handed scores used to hammer home the romance in 999,999 out of 1 million other films.

The Lunchbox is as authentic as they come, marking the debut of an immensely talented filmmaker that we'll all have to keep our eyes on in the years to come.

Movie Review: ‘The Lunchbox’

“The Lunchbox” revolves around something we are all familiar with from our childhood — a literal lunchbox — and creates a complex and powerful message behind this simple object. Refreshingly subtle and profound, this Indian romance film, directed by Ritesh Batra, provides an entertaining contrast to predictable movies by not following the plot that a typical audience might be used to.

Irrfan Khan, who also starred in “Life of Pi” and “Slumdog Millionaire,” plays the main male character, Sajan Fernandez. Nimrat Kaur takes on the role of Ila, a wife stuck in a failing marriage that she is desperately trying to save. These two characters cross paths when Ila’s lunchboxes are mistakenly delivered to Sajan instead of her husband.

Still in a state of grief over his late wife, Sajan has found that little in his life brings him any excitement or joy. He goes through the mundane routine of his life without any exuberance or even a smile. Ila also has found that she rarely laughs or smiles anymore.

In an attempt to salvage her love-less marriage, Ila decides that the way back into her husband’s heart is through food. With the help of “auntie,” an elderly woman who lives upstairs from her, Ila sweats all morning in the kitchen to prepare her husband a lunch feast. The only problem is that her lunches are going to Sajan. Even after realizing this mistake, Ila cannot bring herself to tell the deliveryman to fix it because of her newfound relationship with the receiver of her lunchboxes. Initially writing a note to Sajan thanking him for finishing all her food (as it is a sign that her cooking was delicious), Ila discovers that this mistake was a blessed one. Passing notes to each other in the lunchbox, Sajan and Ila quickly find that the best part of their days is reading each other’s letters.

Batra does an excellent job building and escalating their relationship through these lunchbox exchanges, despite the fact that Ila and Sajan have never met before. We see that each character has deep sources of dissatisfaction with their current state of life, which are remedied by being able to express them through these lunchbox letters. The fact that this love story may not be as sexually charged or passionate as many other love stories like “The Notebook” or “Endless Love” makes their relationship even more meaningful and profound. In each other, Ila and Sajan find consolation in the midst of the hardships in their lives. The attraction isn’t of the love at first sight flavor, but is instead a result of their trust, understanding and acknowledgement of each other’s hardships.

While the audience knows about the significant age difference between Ila and Sajan from the very beginning, the characters themselves do not know to what extent this difference is. Both in very different phases of life, their relationship not only explores themes of love but also of the different stages of life. Sajan experiences a renewal in his outlook as his relationship with Ila grows. The transformation of Sajan is furthered by his newly assigned trainee. With a stubborn and eternally optimistic attitude, the new trainee Shaikh helps Sajan learn to care for someone other than himself. Played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui who has acted in many Bollywood films, Shaikh pushes Sajan to open up through his great persistence. Having many more years of life experience, Sajannot not only provides Ila with companionship, but also with valuable advice. In return, Ila provides Sajan with the ability to dream and hope for a better future.

Any viewer can appreciate the nuances of their relationship and the overall film. The emotions conveyed are more subtle than many American-produced movies, and because of this, the film may seem less exciting or boring. The drama in the film does not come with elaborate and passionate scenes, but instead from the agony of thought that each character experiences. I was initially dissatisfied with the ending of the film as it did not follow the path that I was expecting and hoping it would follow. However, after thinking about it more, the unpredictable and maybe less desirable ending follows suit with the theme of the movie of subtlety and contemplation. “The Lunchbox” is a refreshing and thought-provoking take on the traditional love stories and encourages viewers to contemplate the nature of love and relationships in general.

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the lunchbox

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The Lunchbox Parent Guide

Food for the soul..

A lonely wife (Nimrat Kaur) and a man tired of the world (Irrfan Khan) make an unexpected connection with each other when a mix up is made with the delivery of a lunchbox. Set in Mumbai, this film is in English and Hindi with English subtitles.

Run Time: 105 minutes

Official Movie Site

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kerry bennett.

The way to a man’s heart may be through his stomach—but that’s more challenging if his heart is already roaming. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) knows things aren’t going well in her marriage so she decides to spice it up by preparing her husband’s favorite foods for lunch. She puts the items in a multi-tiered metal lunch kit and hands it over to the Mumbai Dabbawala lunchbox delivery service. Unexpectedly, the meal is mistakenly dropped off at the wrong address.

Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan), a widowed accountant nearing retirement, can’t believe how good his lunch tastes. Since the death of his wife he has ordered his midday meal from a nearby restaurant that also uses the lunchbox delivery service. The day after the delicious food, Saajan finds a note from Ila in the tiffin. She explains the meal was meant for her husband. Saajan responds by telling her how good it was. So rather than correct the mistake, Ila continues to prepare food that is delivered to Saajan. And along with the lunch, the pair begins exchanging messages.

As their relationship grows, the two finally decide to meet. But on the designated day, Saajan fails to show up.

This sub-titled film contains depictions of smoking and relatively minor amounts of sexual content. (It is implied a man is groped on a crowded bus and that another is involved in an affair.) However, the theme of the screenplay centers on unhappy unions, not only Ila’s but also many others that suffer through loveless relationships while caring for sick husbands or choosing suicide as an escape. The only happy couple portrayed in the movie is a young pair who is living together. Laying out the joyless plight of her life, the script carefully justifies Ila’s decision to become involved with another man—even if it is only through the written word. Unfortunately it also makes it seem that most wedded women in India are sorrowful.

Still, The Lunchbox is beautifully made romance, which depicts fresh faces and landscapes. It ingeniously uses letters rather than lots of dialogue to tell the story. As well, it gives North American audiences a look into the everyday dynamics of a different culture and its exotic foods.

About author

Kerry Bennett

The lunchbox rating & content info.

Why is The Lunchbox rated PG? The Lunchbox is rated PG by the MPAA for thematic material and smoking.

Violence: There is talk about a woman who committed suicide by jumping from a tall building with her child. A man appears to be stealing supplies from the office.

Sexual Content: It is implied that an old woman is groping a man on a crowded train. A woman discovers her husband is involved in an affair. A couple lives together because her father will not give his blessing for their marriage. They are later married.

Language: None noted.

Alcohol / Drug Use :The main character smokes on numerous occasions, although he tries at one point to stop smoking. A man suffers and dies from lung cancer.

Page last updated July 17, 2017

The Lunchbox Parents' Guide

The dabbawala lunchbox delivery service employs hundreds of people and delivers millions of lunches every day.

What are portrayed as Ila’s options in this movie? Why do you think so many unhappy marriages are depicted? Is there any indication that a new relationship would be any happier in the future?

What kind of relationship does Ila share with her upstairs neighbor? How might divorce laws be different in India? What challenges might be facing a woman who wants to leave her marriage?

The most recent home video release of The Lunchbox movie is July 1, 2014. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: The Lunchbox

Release Date: 8 July 2014

The Lunchbox releases to home video in a Combo Pack (Blu-ray and DVD), with the following extras:

- Commentary track with writer/director Ritesh Batra.

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The Lunchbox

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Dr Rao 6804 764 days ago

A movie that sets one thinking, a must-watch movie, looks as if it is just the exchange of a lunch box but then, it is much more! The lunch box mediates in building a relationship between two unknown people--one an elderly widower living alone & the other, the enthusiastic housewife who sends the lunch box! In the course of time, exchange of letters take place through the lunch box & builds the emotional bonding between the two, till there comes a time when the housewife discovers that her husband is into an illicit relationship & decides to leave him & relocate to Bhutan with her child! Sharing this plan with Sajjan, who has been receiving the lunch box meant for her husband, sets Sajjan thinking if he can join her on her plans of moving to Bhutan! The hesitation he has in meeting her at the restaurant is very much a reflection of the reality he is exposed to, that she is young & he is too old for her! He decides to leave her life but unable to do so, returns to the his residence, despite the fact that he had boarded a train to Nashik! The kids asking him why he is back is a question that obviously comes to everyone's mind! Ila the housewife is all set to leave for Bhutan with the return of her child from school & Sajjan is shown looking for her home, hopefully they meet & carry on together in the journey of life! It is a question of companionship for each other that needs to be addressed! A well made story with a beautiful concept that looks beyond body & looks! The emotional bonding is all that matters in any relationship is what the audience learns from the movie! Kudos to the entire crew!

svrshedage 854 days ago

Would say it truly is meant for the Clever Audience and not for the ones hoping for 'Masala' kind of a thing , cuz It's spice if to be experienced and thought about as you travel with the trains and taste the tastes of her lunches and the emotions in their subtle letters ........ ��

Satyanarayana Devabhaktuni 1119 days ago

Wonderful movie. Heart touching. Performance of Irfan, Nimratand Nawazuddin is superlative. I doubt if any other artists would have done better. Direction is world class. In the class of Satyajit Ray, almost. 

Ravi Chintala 1165 days ago

Amazingly awesome

Deepanshu Arora 90 1359 days ago

Lovely work by Irrfan Khan. A must watch movie! Both the actors have done a fantastic job!

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Home » Movies » Bollywood Movie Reviews

The Lunchbox Review

Star cast: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Denzil Smith, Bharati Achrekar, Nakul Vaid, Yashvi Puneet Nagar, Lillete Dubey

Director: Ritesh Batra

What’s Good: The film is an utter culinary and cinematic delight ladled up with the right amounts of love and warmth.

What’s Bad: Nothing

Loo Break: Don’t even think of one.

Watch or Not?: The Lunchbox within the first few minutes made its way into the cockles of my heart. Elegantly done, the film conjures a connoisseur variety of cinema where love and romance are stretched beyond the contours marked out by epic Bollywood romances. The love here has so much tenderness, eulogizes companionship of two very unlikely people who are drawn close over notes exchanged via a lunchbox, which almost builds up as a character in their story. Films like these are gratifyingly piquant and should definitely not be missed!

Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is a housewife whose life shuffles between her negligent husband and little daughter. Besides the other chores of the day, the woman is constantly fussing about making the right degree of delicious dish for her husband’s tiffin, that will make him notice her.

However, the immaculate dabbawallahs are just human and they reach her loving dabbah to a loner Government officer Saajan Fernandez (Irrfan). On the edge of retiring, the man has no spice in his life and nothing to look forward to. He is constantly dodging the man who is to replace him (Nawzuddin Siddiqui) and is nasty to the kids who play outside his house.

The lunchbox and the letters that are exchanged with them changes his life as he begins to get drawn back to liveliness. His somber life finds some color via the food Ila sends and their interactions are so perfectly entrancing that the two begin a journey towards companionship and love over their scribbled notes.

Irrfan Khan in a still from The Lunchbox

The Lunchbox Review: Script Analysis

The film has the aroma of immortality. Cooked up amidst the clutter of Mumbai city that is a familiar sight, the film uses unforgettable props to latch on to your memories. The lasting sights of passing trains and messy government office, the spirited dabbawalahs who feed scores of people everyday unfailingly; the ordinary setting of the story also manages to adhere us in its unvarying folds of familiarity. And yet the remarkable beauty of its ironies make the film intrinsically moving. There can be no dispute that writer, director Batra has penned down a exquisite story which its fabulous actors have evolved.

A scattered story of a neglected housewife and a salaried man on the brink of turning into a pensioner converges with an enduring beauty. The woman cooks with the hope that she’ll one day find the recipe that will make her husband notice her beyond the shadow of the woman who inhabits their Malad home. Saajan Fernandez is a man stuck in the labyrinth of loneliness. Essentially a loner with fractured memories of his deceased wife and an dull life, Ila manages to spice up his tiffin and his life with her spices and dishes. By a mysterious mistake of dabbawalahs, the tiffin she packs for her husband reaches Saajan and the two strike up a relationship over letters.

She bares the marbles of her boring marriage and that she suspects her husband is having an affair. He recounts to her, the memories of his wife laughing over and over at the same jokes of Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi and recording them while he kept looking back at her reflection. There is endearment in every scene that comes on the frame – if you can find, there is beauty is every slide the director has come up with.

Even supporting characters are hued up. Nawazuddin plays Shaikh, the man who is to replace Saajan at work, a chattering young man, who chops vegetables on his work files and makes references of his dead mother’s sayings (one who he has no clue about) simply to add weight to his lines. Such characters immediately grab your fondness. The voice of Bharti Achrekar as Deshpande Aunty who is fussing over her coma stricken husband’s diapers is another character who secures a place in your heart even when you never catch a glimpse of her. She is intriguingly used and such a delight throughout.

If you have ever seen the film The Great Indian Butterfly , you’ll know why the constant referencing to Bhutan is both affectionate and yet a fallacy. However, the idea has been evolved with a hammering subtlety. The significance of the wrapping lines have far reaching impact than we can fathom while we hear them over and over again in the film. ‘Sometimes even the wrong train can reach you to the right station!’

The Lunchbox Review: Star Performances

Irrfan is never short of astounding and the actor does it yet again. He slips into the role of a man years older to him with incredible ease and yet he never falters at his marvelous sense of thoroughly syncing with his characters. He is terrific and somehow so charming in his role, that even as the retiring old man he will make your heart skip a beat.

Nimrat Kaur is startlingly natural. She is not the eye candy heroine, she is a surprisingly magnificent actress who understands every shade of her character, performing it with startling beauty.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui essays his role with keenness and he is laudably brilliant at his work. As a supporting character, he is hard to miss for the wonderful chemistry that oozes out of his camaraderie with Irrfan. A few of them makes for the film’s most highlight moments.

The Lunchbox Review: Direction, Editing and Music

Debutant Ritesh Batra dishes out in his first film, that many filmmakers can’t achieve in years. His characters have the mystic charm of yesteryear beauty. He makes his film revel in simplicity as the two protagonists are drawn to each other via letters and food. The metaphor of Food emerges to be as real as it symbolically denotes moods and feelings – from the well-licked lunchbox that swells Ila’s morale as she is appreciated to the empty box which symbolizes her dejection! The idea has previously been aced in Rahul Bose’ National Award winning Bengali film Antaheen , but Batra’s treatment did not use melancholy as much as it used the magic of ironies. He weaves an enchanting world within his film, all of which are strangely recognizable. The way he decided to end his film could not have been better -open ended that leaves the decision of the story to its viewers. I being a hopeless romantic have finished it off in my head on a positive note.

The film’s screenplay has no sags and for music it has the title track of 90s’ hit film Saajan that has far reaching meaning than just being synonymous with the name of its lead man.

The Lunchbox Review: The Last Word

The Lunchbox is one of those films that will mesmerize you with dripping simplicity. Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur build their characters intimately without meeting each other for once all through the film. Normally such stories lose their steam soon enough, but Batra’s expertise handles the film with its ingrained beauty of an unlikely love story. It is such a potent and effective film that I can’t really settle for anything less than 4.5/5. It is only sometimes that one encounters an unblemished film, this ranks among those few for me!

The Lunchbox Trailer

The Lunchbox releases on 20th September, 2013.

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And people talk about films like chennai express & bodyguards…do they even qualify as “films” compared to such movies.

are you a fool or smthng…. those movies before releasing are r promoted as masala movies…… and right u urself are comparing a classy movie with massy movie…… idiot…. stop comparing all movies are same same but different……

Why compare? They’re different types of films catering to different audiences. Bodyguard, dabangg, CE etc were good entertainers. Bad masala films like himmatwala or zanjeer are rejected.

@AB, You can’t compare CE & BODYGUARD with this movie.. They are different genre of movie.. CE & BODYGUARD are mass entertainer.. The lunchbox is not mass entertainer, Movies are made for entertaining people not for headache…

Yes, CE & Bodyguard are qualified as films for maximum public who wants entertainment.. The lunchbox is qualified as films for few peoples who wants __

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The Lunchbox Review

11 Apr 2014

105 minutes

Lunchbox, The

A snafu by one of the 5000 couriers delivering lunchboxes across Mumbai sparks an unexpected epistolatory romance in Ritesh Batra’s delightful debut. Hoping to spice up her marriage, housewife Nimrat Kaur sends her husband a special meal. But a wayward dabawallah hands the tiffin tin to gruff, soon-to-retire accountant Irffan Khan, who is sufficiently smitten by the food and the notes Kaur keeps sending to find this chef who has stirred his soul. The slow-burning relationship is handled with wit, charm and poignancy, but Batra and cinematographer Michael Simmonds also excel at conveying loneliness in a teeming metropolis.

Movies | 29 04 2020

Cast & crew
User reviews

The Lunchbox

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an older man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through ... Read all A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an older man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox. A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an older man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox.

Ritesh Batra
Irrfan Khan
Nimrat Kaur
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
262 User reviews
185 Critic reviews
76 Metascore
29 wins & 46 nominations total

Saajan Fernandes

Ila's Mother

Ila's Father
Duke's Owner
Dabbawallah at Ila's House
Saajan's Neighbor
Toothless Woman
Ila's Brother
Autorickshaw Driver
Young Man in Train
Autorickshaw 2
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

Trivia In order to bring authenticity to the role and for knowing each other well enough to share the love and resentment among the couple as per the story in the film, Nimrat Kaur (Ila) and her onscreen husband Nakul Vaid (Rajeev) stayed at the same house as shown in the movie for weeks and spent days extensively rehearsing their part and adjusting to it prior to the other cast members even getting finalized.
Goofs After his marriage, Shaikh tells Saajan that on their first train ride together he got into the first class compartment without a ticket. However, during their first ride the train seat seen is that of the second class.

Saajan Fernandes : I think we forget things if there is nobody to tell them.

Connections Featured in 59th Idea Filmfare Awards (2014)

User reviews 262

sonalijagwani
Sep 21, 2013
How long is The Lunchbox? Powered by Alexa
September 20, 2013 (India)
United States
Cine Mosaic
Official Site
Chiếc Hộp Lạ Kì
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Sikhya Entertainment
DAR Motion Pictures
National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC)
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$1,000,000 (estimated)
Mar 2, 2014
$11,621,785

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 44 minutes
Dolby Digital

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The Lunchbox review - 'a quiet storm of banked emotions'

A lready a huge success in its native India, Ritesh Batra's Mumbai-set romance arranges a tender marriage of Brief Encounter with Ernst Lubitsch's The Shop Around the Corner . Bollywood star Irrfan Khan plays Saajan, an ageing office drone who finds the wrong lunchbox delivered to his desk and stumbles into a chaste relationship with Nimrat Kaur's unhappy housewife. Before long, this pair will learn the value of crossed wires and missed connections and how (in the words of one colleague) "the wrong train can get you to the right station". Who cares if the conceit feels a shade schematic? The Lunchbox is perfectly handled and beautifully acted; a quiet storm of banked emotions. I loved the bittersweet scenes of Saajan clinging to the handrails of the crowded commuter carriage or smoking on the terrace of his home at night, like the loneliest figure this side of an Edward Hopper painting.

The Lunchbox
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Romance films
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The Lunchbox
Revised : Critic's Rating has revised from 4 to 3.5, based on popular feedback.
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Irrfan leads the way, underplayed, yet lasting, like a cardamom between your lips.

The Lunchbox Movie Review

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Filmfare Awards

Ritesh Batra

Nawazuddin Siddiqui

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Amazingly awesome

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Lovely work by Irrfan Khan. A must watch movie! Both the actors have done a fantastic job!

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This film marks the first collaboration of uncle-nephew duo Anil Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. Arjun is the son of Anil’s brother Boney Kapoor. Share
This film marks the first collaboration of uncle-nephew duo Anil Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. Arjun is the son of Anil’s brother Boney Kapoor.
This is the second time Arjun Kapoor is playing a double role, the first being Aurangzeb (2013).
The song ‘Yamma yamma’ from ‘Shaan’ is sampled in the song ‘Partywali Night' for the film.

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By Nudrat Kamal | Arts & Culture | Movies | Published 11 years ago

By Bollywood’s standards, The Lunchbox is not your typical love story. There are no grand romantic gestures, or dancing in the rain or a zaalim samaaj threatening to break apart the happy couple. There are no crazy adventures or melodramatic misunderstandings. Instead, there are two lonely people living quiet lives and trying to form a human connection, and a lunchbox sent to the wrong address which helps bring them closer.

The opening scene of The Lunchbox shows Ila (Nimrat Kaur), a young housewife sending her small daughter off to school and then lovingly preparing lunch for her husband. She packs the lunch and hands it over to a man on a bicycle laden with similar lunchboxes. We follow the man as he travels the busy roads of Mumbai, riding along in the overcrowded subway, and delivers the lunchboxes to people in their offices during their lunch break. The man is one of the legendary Mumbai dabbawallas who deliver millions of lunchboxes every day through the city. At the end of this cleverly shot opening scene, we figure out that, instead of reaching the desk of her cold and indifferent husband, the lunchbox has mistakenly found its way to another man somewhere in the city.

Saajan Fernandes (Irrfan Khan) is a widower nearing the tail-end of middle-age, with nothing but his 9-to-5 job and an empty home full of old memories, about to face the prospect of life after early retirement. The lunchbox on his desk contains food more delicious than what his usual food delivery place sends. It’s a happy development in his otherwise melancholy life. When Ila figures out that someone else ate her husband’s lunch, she sends a note in the lunchbox the next day to thank him for liking her food enough to send the box empty — her husband is too indifferent to ever notice the food she sends (a metaphor of sorts for his general apathy in their marriage). Saajan sends back a note in response and so begins a tenuous bond between the two, evolving entirely through their letters in the lunchbox.

Aside from the quietly developing relationship between Ila and Sajaan, there is also Sajaan’s relationship with Shaikh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a young man who is going to take over Sajaan’s job once he retires. While at first Sajaan is annoyed by Shaikh’s incessant pestering and cheery mood, they too gradually bond.

The performances by all three, especially Khan and Kaur, are wonderfully nuanced. Sajaan being a man of few words, Khan uses his body language to convey his loneliness and grief, and his lack of interest in life. Whether he is hunched over his desk, crunching numbers, or standing in his balcony and watching as a family eats dinner, his sadness is palpable. That is what makes his smile as he catches a waft of the lunchbox’s aroma or his guarded happiness as he takes out a folded note, such a joy to watch. Kaur’s performance as Ila is equally compelling. You can feel her heart breaking every time her husband brushes her off, and as she tries to find joy in her small household tasks to stave off her growing despair. Even Nawazuddin breathes life into his character, making you root for him immediately.

Written and directed by newcomer Ritesh Batra, The Lunchbox is simple in its story and its execution, and its emphasis on small moments gives it an endearing quality. The way Ila prepares the food, putting in a pinch of haldi with a swish of her wrist, or the way Saajan glances at the lunchbox on his desk every few minutes, waiting for his lunch break to start, gives the character an added depth. Adding humour to the story is Ila’s neighbour, the woman who lives above Ila’s apartment. The two communicate solely through their kitchen windows, with each calling out to the other for quick chats.

The film is not flawless, however. Some scenes drag on a tad too long, causing occasional flatness in the otherwise tight narrative. And the ending could have had a little more resolution – it was left more open-ended than necessary. If you spend the entire film making the audience fall in love with the characters, it’s only fair that allow them to watch the story reach a reasonably resolved conclusion. But these flaws can undoubtedly be overlooked because the film succeeds in pretty much everything else. The Lunchbox is equally parts heartwarming and melancholic, and captures not just the love, but also the loneliness and longing of the two characters in perfect pitch. And the message is, at the end of the day, a hopeful one: Kabhi kabhi ghalat train bhi sahi jaga puhancha deti hai.

This review was originally published in Newsline’s November 2013 issue under the headline, “Way to a Man’s Heart.”

Written by Nudrat Kamal

Nudrat Kamal teaches comparative literature at university level, and writes on literature, film and culture.

The Lunchbox

Release date: 20 september, 2013 -->, the lunchbox movie.

'Lunchbox' is a love story set in Mumbai between a young housewife and a middle aged man. It's a story of a beautiful

relationship triggered by the wrong delivery of one in 8 million lunchboxes that is delivered

daily by Mumbai's now world famous Dabbawalla's.

First Look Of The Movie The Lunchbox

Videos (13).

Nimrat Kaur: “A play led to ‘The Lunchbox’, ‘Lunchbox’ to ‘Homeland’ & ‘Homeland to Foundation”

Articles (32).

Nimrat Kaur on Catherine Zeta Jones’ comments on The Lunchbox, “It was wonderfully surprising”

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Anya Taylor-Joy in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga movie

The first reviews are in for George Miller ‘s anticipated Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and the notices are largely positive so far.

Deadline’s Pete Hammond said Miller had “perhaps given birth to the greatest Max yet, a wheels-up, rock-and-rolling epic.” Pete was one of many to praise the cast, production design and visuals. “Shout-out to action designer Guy Norris and his team, who show the need for a stunts Oscar.” You can check out his review here .

‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ Cannes Film Festival Premiere Photos: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, George Miller & More

Anya Taylor-Joy, Tom Burke and Chris Hemsworth in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga movie

‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ Review: Chris Hemsworth And Anya Taylor-Joy Take Dystopian Franchise To New Levels – Cannes Film Festival

Reviewing for The Guardian , Peter Bradshaw gave the movie four stars, and he was one of many to heap praise on leads Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth . He called Taylor-Joy an “overwhelmingly convincing action hero” who “sells this sequel.”

RELATED: Cannes Film Festival Photos

The Au Review in Australia said Furiosa is “an exhilarating actioner from one of the greatest blockbuster filmmakers of our time…In so many ways the odds were stacked against Fury Road, and yet genius and grit persevered, resulting in a bombastic, exaggerated, emotional action extravaganza that spoke to the unmatched creativity of its director,” wrote Peter Gray.

The South China Morning Post described the action film as being as “bombastic” as 2015’s Fury Road but Hemsworth provides an “added bonus.” “It is the little moments that really sell the film,” said the review. “A lizard pops out of a skull before it is crushed to death by a monster vehicle; a hairpiece falls onto a branch, which grows and sprouts leaves, shown using time-lapse photography to mark Furiosa’s transition from youngster to young warrior.”

RELATED: Cannes Film Festival 2024: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews

IGN Africa praised the “immaculate crafting” of the pic. “Weaving together top-notch worldbuilding, an emotionally resonant directorial eye, searing performances, sharp cinematography, and a hell-raising score, this is a remarkable hero’s journey punctuated by incredible action scenes,” it added.

Veteran UK reviewer Xan Brooks described the pic on X as the “flamboyant, prog-rock fifth instalment” of Miller’s series. While “almost collapsing under the weight of its thunderous set pieces and freestyle ambition,” Brooks said this is “no bad thing.”

RELATED: Anya Taylor-Joy Reveals Why She Felt So Alone While Making ‘Furiosa’ – Cannes Studio

Another seasoned critic, David Ehrlich , took to X to call the movie an “absolute triumph,” going as far as to label it “not just one of the best prequels ever made but also an immensely satisfying revenge epic in its own right.”

Darren Mooney , host of The 250 podcast, sees Furiosa as a “sweeping alternate history of a dystopian world,” comparing it to last year’s Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes sequel.

Not all critics were so glowing, however.

The LA times posited that Furiosa “forgets what makes the Mad Max movies great,” while the BBC ’s verdict was “more exhausting than exhilarating”: “With all due respect to Miller’s bonkers vision, and his incredible ability to put that vision on screen, Furiosa seems like one of those spin-off graphic novels that plug the gaps between two films in a franchise, but which don’t quite match up to the films themselves,” added the BBC, pulling no punches.

Time mag, meanwhile, was damning with its verdict of “all spectacle and no vision,” and was critical of Taylor-Joy’s performance when compared with Charlize Theron in Fury Road . “Theron was the best thing about Mad Max: Fury Road . Even as she played a single-minded and dead-serious character, you could tell she had a sense of humor about herself, a kind of quiet internal clock that prevented her from becoming noble in a drab way. But Taylor-Joy plays Furiosa as a somber heroic icon, and you can hear the gears clicking.”

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‘Kinds of Kindness’ Review: Yorgos Lanthimos Keeps You Squirming for Nearly Three Hours in Bizarre, Biting Parody

The mordant Greek auteur reunites with his 'Dogtooth' screenwriter, putting Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe through an unpredictable surrealistic triptych.

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A submissive office worker lets his boss dictate everything, from what he wears to the woman he marries. In the next segment, the same actor ( Jesse Plemons ) assumes a different role, playing a cop grieving his wife’s disappearance. When she resurfaces (in the form of Emma Stone), he’s less than enthused when she tries to dominate him in the bedroom. Finally, a woman (also Stone) abandons her marriage to follow a kinky cult leader (Willem Dafoe) who’s ordered her to find an elusive faith healer.

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That is perhaps the only way in which Lanthimos’ latest could be said to satisfy anyone’s expectations: At no point during “Kinds of Kindness” can audiences pretend to anticipate what will happen next. This long, scaldingly original film enthralls even as it frustrates, defying conventional logic while presenting an absurdist riff on modern society. It’s never boring, and yet, Lanthimos’ outré sensibility demands a special brand of patience (not to mention wariness) from viewers, many of whom will come to see Plemons and Stone stretching beyond their respective comfort zones, only to have the same limits tested in themselves.

Stone, who starred in the director’s previous two films, takes a while to appear, leaving audiences to figure out Plemons’ first character, a pathetic corporate lackey named Robert who does as his boss Raymond (Dafoe) tells him, even if that means smashing his shiny new Bronco into a stranger’s car. Raymond rewards Robert’s loyalty with one-of-a-kind sports memorabilia and a generous modern home, which he shares with his wife, Sarah (Hong Chau). For years, Robert has gone along with the arrangement, but this latest request — which is tantamount to manslaughter — is a step too far, forcing him to refuse Raymond’s orders for the first time. Like much of the film, what follows is much funnier on second viewing, as Robert spirals out of control before crawling back to his boss.

What do the various principals in this dynamic represent? Does Raymond embody all bosses, whose expectations shape so much of how the American workforce must behave? Could he be a lawmaker, religious leader or other figure of authority, to whom followers cede their free will? Maybe even a demanding film director? The answer is all of the above and perhaps none at all, as Lanthimos invites us to make what we will of the situation. Unlike “Dogtooth” and “The Lobster,” which provided fairly straightforward critiques of socialization and romantic coupling, respectively, the themes are less clearly defined in this case, making for a blurrier allegory overall. Technically, kindness is offered without thought of reward, whereas these three vignettes are about characters desperately trying to prove their love.

There’s a fair amount of overlap between the first and second chapter, in which Plemons now plays Daniel, a police officer who hasn’t been the same since his wife, Liz (Stone), went missing. When she miraculously reappears, he becomes convinced that she’s not the same person, and because Lanthimos makes the rules, it’s impossible for audiences to determine whether Daniel is acting rationally. Certainly, his mind games — macabre little tests of Liz’s devotion — would seem cruel in the real world. But when we don’t know how gravity works in this universe, how to interpret his behavior? Again, it’s funnier on subsequent viewings, once we’ve gotten over the initial shock.

With no offense intended to any of the actors who bare all in the film, Lanthimos treats sex (and death) as laughable and absurd. That’s one way of undercutting the importance people place on both, to say nothing of abortion, rape and suicide. His irreverence can be disarming at times, laugh-out-loud funny at others. It’s not clear in the end whether he aims to amuse, alarm or enlighten — quite likely all three. There’s an off-kilter precision to the entire project, heightened by “Poor Things” composer Jerskin Fendrix’s use of discordant pianos and stress-inducing choirs. Meanwhile, DP Robbie Ryan pivots from the trick photography of “Poor Things” to meticulous widescreen compositions, centered on some of New Orleans’ least-scenic locations.

When Lanthimos made “Dogtooth,” audiences may not have picked up on the dry, disaffected way the Greek actors delivered their lines. But now that he’s directing in English, it’s impossible not to notice — or be unnerved by — the way the cast underplay situations that would be wrenching in real life. The exception is Plemons, who evokes a young Philip Seymour Hoffman: His emotional commitment to these three roles is commendable, if on a slightly different wavelength from his mostly blank-faced co-stars. With a total of four parts to her name (including twins), Margaret Qualley has more to do here than she did in “Poor Things,” while Mamoudou Athie (who plays her husband in the second chapter) feels underused.

Lanthimos and longtime editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis strike a rhythm that’s totally distinct from that of other filmmakers, creating tension less from suspense than surprise. Each of the segments abruptly concludes with a Saki-esque twist, before moving on to the next. While certain themes carry over, the only real continuity is the title character of each chapter, R.M.F. (Yorgos Stefanakos), whose shifting status gives a clue to their order. To see him eat a sandwich, stick around through the end credits. And to fully appreciate the dark humor of it all, do yourself a kindness: Buckle up and take the whole ride again.

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival, May 17, 2024. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 164 MIN.

Production: A Searchlight Pictures release, presented in association with Film4, TSG Entertainment of an Element Pictures production. Producers: Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, Kasia Malipan.
Crew: Director: Yorgos Lanthimos. Screenplay: Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou. Camera: Robbie Ryan. Editor: Yorgos Mavropsaridis. Music: Jerskin Fendrix.
With: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, Hunter Schafer.

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'If' movie review: Ryan Reynolds' imaginary friend fantasy might go over your kids' heads

Even with likable youngsters, a vast array of cartoonish characters, various pratfalls and shenanigans, and Ryan Reynolds in non- Deadpool mode, the family comedy “IF” isn’t really a "kids movie" – at least not in a conventional sense.

There’s a refreshing whiff of whimsy and playful originality to writer/director John Krasinski’s big-hearted fantasy (★★½ out of four; rated PG; in theaters Friday), which centers on a young girl who discovers a secret world of imaginary friends (aka IFs). What it can’t find is the common thread of universal appeal. Yeah, children are geared to like any movie with a cheery unicorn, superhero dog, flaming marshmallow with melting eye and assorted furry monsters. But “IF” features heady themes of parental loss and reconnecting with one’s youth, plus boasts a showstopping dance set to Tina Turner, and that all leans fairly adult. Mash those together and the result is akin to a live-action Pixar movie without the nuanced execution.

Twelve-year-old Bea (Cailey Fleming) doesn’t really think of herself as a kid anymore. Her mom died of a terminal illness and now her dad (Krasinski) is going into the hospital for surgery to fix his “broken heart,” so she’s staying with her grandma (Fiona Shaw) in New York City.

When poking around her new environment, Bea learns she has the ability to see imaginary friends. And she’s not the only one: Bea meets charmingly crusty upstairs neighbor Cal (Reynolds) as well as his IF pals, like spritely Blossom (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and overly sensitive purple furry monster named Blue (Steve Carell). They run a sort of matchmaking agency to connect forgotten IFs whose kids have outgrown them with new children in need of their companionship, and Bea volunteers to help out.

'Welcome to Wrexham': Ryan Reynolds talks triumph, joy and loss of new season

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Bea is introduced to an IF retirement community located under a Coney Island carousel with a bevy of oddball personalities in the very kid-friendly middle section of the movie. “IF” low-key has the most starry supporting cast of any movie this summer because of all the A-listers voicing imaginary friends, an impressive list that includes Emily Blunt and Sam Rockwell as the aforementioned unicorn and superdog, Matt Damon as a helpful sunflower, George Clooney as a spaceman, Amy Schumer as a gummy bear and Bradley Cooper as an ice cube in a glass. (It's no talking raccoon, but it works.)

One of the movie's most poignant roles is a wise bear played by Louis Gossett Jr. in one of his final roles. Rather than just being a cameo, he’s nicely central to a key emotional scene.

While the best family flicks win over kids of all ages, “IF” is a film for grown-ups in PG dressing. The movie is amusing but safe in its humor, the overt earnestness overshadows some great bits of subversive silliness, and the thoughtful larger narrative, which reveals itself by the end to be much more than a story about a girl befriending a bunch of make-believe misfits, will go over some little ones’ heads. Tweens and teens, though, will likely engage with or feel seen by Bea’s character arc, struggling to move into a new phase of life while being tied to her younger years – not to mention worrying about her dad, who tries to make light of his medical situation for Bea.

Reynolds does his part enchanting all ages in this tale of two movies: He’s always got that irascible “fun uncle” vibe for kids, and he strikes a fun chemistry opposite Fleming that belies the serious stuff “IF” digs into frequently. But unless your child is into old movies, they probably won’t get why “Harvey” is playing in the background in a scene. And when “IF” reaches its cathartic finale, some kiddos might be wondering why their parents are sniffling and tearing up – if they're still paying attention and not off playing with their own imaginary friend by then.

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‘The Strangers: Chapter 1’ Review: Crowded House

A reboot of the 2008 home invasion film “The Strangers” brings back masked assailants and brutal violence but leaves originality behind.

Share full article

A man and a woman sit outside a cabin, drinking beers. The woman rests her back on the man's shoulder.

By Erik Piepenburg

The key to a terrific scary home invasion horror movie is not just how domesticity gets breached but why. It’s great to have a determined aggressor, sympathetic victims and a brutal invasion that’s contained and sustained. But to what end?

Yet some of the best home invasion films — “Funny Games,” “Them” — don’t supply easy answers. “The Strangers,” Bryan Bertino’s terrifying 2008 thriller starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple under siege, didn’t either. It kept the invaders’ motives and their identities mysterious, amping up the devil-you-don’t-know terrors with a sense of randomness that was despairing. The premise and execution were simple. The payoff was a gut punch.

On its face, “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” the first of three new films in a “Strangers” reboot from the director Renny Harlin (“ A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master ”), checks all the same boxes. But the hapless script — written by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland and based on the original — offers nothing fresh in a tiring 91 minutes, and nothing daring to justify a new “Strangers” film, let alone a new series, especially when Bertino’s formidable film is streaming on Max .

This new tale begins with Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and her boyfriend, Ryan (Froy Gutierrez), taking a fifth anniversary road trip through the Pacific Northwest. When their car breaks down in a rural Oregon town, they meet a seen-it-before who’s who of horror movie yokeldom: unsmiling boys, sweaty bumpkin mechanics, a diner waitress whose eyes scream “run, if you know what’s good.”

As Maya and Ryan wait for their car to be fixed, they decide to spend the night at a secluded rental cabin. Under darkness there’s a knock at the door and, true to the home invasion formula, our leading sweethearts get terrorized until dawn inside the cabin and through the woods by a trio of assailants with big weapons and indefinite end goals. They have face coverings too, making menace out of the same blank-faced creepiness the villains embodied in the original film and its 2018 sequel.

Harlin is known for action films, including “Die Hard 2,” and those chops come in handy here, especially when he’s left hanging by a sleepy middle section of frantic chases and failed attacks that feel like padding. Cat-and-mouse games can be compelling, but here , like a “Tom and Jerry” marathon, they get repetitive, dulling the impact of the violence. Petsch and Gutierrez have sufficient enough rapport, and border on sharing a couple’s chemistry as the final stretch comes to a too-predictable conclusion.

The film’s few thrilling moments have little to do with blood and guts and more with the juxtaposition of dread and song, as when Joanna Newsom’s lilting hymn “Sprout and the Bean” and Twisted Sister’s power anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It” pop up unexpectedly to disorient the action. These and other oddball musical interludes provide too-fleeting hints of what might have been had this film sought a novel household takeover, not the same old.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 Rated R for heaps of ruthless violence and general despair. Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes. In theaters.

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The Lunchbox Movie: Review
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"The Lunchbox" Movie Review

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The Lunchbox
Lonely housewife Ila (Nimrat Kaur) decides to try adding some spice to her stale marriage by preparing a special lunch for her neglectful husband. Unfortunately, the delivery goes astray and winds ...
The Lunchbox: Old School Anonymity Softens New World Discontent
Ritesh Batra 's first feature, "The Lunchbox" (2013) hooked me within the first act. Imagine the life you live, when a short note of a few lines becomes your daily thrill. Here, we follow the quiet lives of disconnected people reaching across the urban noise of Mumbai, reaching for anyone who would listen.
The Lunchbox
The Lunchbox is a 2013 drama film written and directed by Ritesh Batra.Produced by Guneet Monga, Anurag Kashyap and Arun Rangachari, The Lunchbox is an international co-production of studios in India, the US, Germany and France. It stars Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur alongside Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bharti Achrekar and Nakul Vaid in supporting roles.. The Lunchbox was screened at Critics' Week at ...
A Meet-Cute Romance With A Delicious Twist
The Lunchbox. Directors: Ritesh Batra. Genre: Drama, Romance. Running time: 104 minutes. Rated PG for thematic material and smoking. With Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui. In Hindi ...
Movie Review: 'The Lunchbox'
Movie Review: 'The Lunchbox' Gabe Johnson and Robin Lindsay • February 28, 2014. The Times critic A. O. Scott reviews "The Lunchbox." Advertisement. SKIP ADVERTISEMENT. Recent episodes in Movies.
The Lunchbox Review
Director Ritesh Batra gives us a thoroughly inventive and grounded drama/romance, with superb performances by Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur.
'The Lunchbox' movie review: Indian romance an old-school charmer
Director: Ritesh Batra. Rating: PG, for thematic material and smoking. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. Where: Find New Orleans and Baton Rouge showtimes. "The Lunchbox" is the sort of film that ...
The Lunchbox
Feb 28, 2014. The Lunchbox is a first feature for director Ritesh Batra, but it nicely captures the almost overwhelming crush and noise of contemporary India, and it plays cleverly and delicately with the tension of whether its two correspondents might eventually meet. Theirs is one "virtual" romance that has nothing to do with social media.
Movie Review: 'The Lunchbox'
By Meagan Wang • March 14, 2014. "The Lunchbox" revolves around something we are all familiar with from our childhood — a literal lunchbox — and creates a complex and powerful message behind this simple object. Refreshingly subtle and profound, this Indian romance film, directed by Ritesh Batra, provides an entertaining contrast to ...
The Lunchbox Movie Review for Parents
The Lunchbox Rating & Content Info . Why is The Lunchbox rated PG? The Lunchbox is rated PG by the MPAA for thematic material and smoking.. Violence: There is talk about a woman who committed suicide by jumping from a tall building with her child.A man appears to be stealing supplies from the office. Sexual Content: It is implied that an old woman is groping a man on a crowded train.
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The Lunchbox Movie Review: Critics Rating: 3.5 stars, click to give your rating/review,Irrfan leads the way, underplayed, yet lasting, like a cardamom between your lips.
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The Lunchbox Movie Review: 4.5/5 stars. What's Good: The film is an utter culinary and cinematic delight ladled up with the right amounts of love and warmth. What's Bad: Nothing.
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Original Title: Lunchbox, The. A snafu by one of the 5000 couriers delivering lunchboxes across Mumbai sparks an unexpected epistolatory romance in Ritesh Batra's delightful debut. Hoping to ...
The Lunchbox (2013)
anish-7 21 September 2013. "The Lunchbox" is the most honest love story to come out of Bollywood in ages. It is a delightful story of love blossoming slowly, one letter a day, between two most unlikely but equally despondent characters you could ever match make. Debutant Director, Ritesh Batra, who is also done the script writing, has crafted ...
The Lunchbox (2013)
The Lunchbox: Directed by Ritesh Batra. With Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Lillete Dubey. A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an older man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox.
The Lunchbox review
Bollywood star Irrfan Khan plays Saajan, an ageing office drone who finds the wrong lunchbox delivered to his desk and stumbles into a chaste relationship with Nimrat Kaur's unhappy housewife ...
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The Lunchbox Movie Review 2013 : The Lunchbox Critics Rating 4/5. The dabbawalas of Mumbai have shot to global fame, getting invited for the royal wedding and also giving guest lectures in some of ...
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The Lunchbox Movie Review: Critics Rating: 3.5 stars, click to give your rating/review,Irrfan leads the way, underplayed, yet lasting, like a cardamom between your lips.
Movie Review: The Lunchbox
The Lunchbox is equally parts heartwarming and melancholic, and captures not just the love, but also the loneliness and longing of the two characters in perfect pitch. And the message is, at the end of the day, a hopeful one: Kabhi kabhi ghalat train bhi sahi jaga puhancha deti hai. This review was originally published in Newsline's November ...
The Lunchbox Movie: Review
The Lunchbox Release Date - Check out latest The Lunchbox movie review (2013), trailer release date, Public movie reviews, The Lunchbox movie release date in India, Movie official trailer, news ...
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'If' movie review: Ryan Reynolds leads whimsical imaginary friend film
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