Boiling Point is a movie that <i>almost</i> reaches rarified air but falls just a little short. But it’s still a pretty great movie that’s excels on both a technical and artistic level, even if it doesn’t quite achieve the propulsive drama that it promises.

The film is a remarkable 90+ minute single take set in a busy restaurant. The poor cameraman follows various workers as they go about their night cooking, serving, and chatting. There’s an overarching story involving the harried head chef but that’s just one dramatic storyline among many.

For a movie called Boiling Point, I didn’t think it quite reached the tension and suspense needed to live up to the moniker. But it tries so very hard and it’s almost always thoroughly engaging. I just wish that its desire to ratchet up the tension and deliver dramatic bomb after bomb was fully met.

The most admirable thing about the film is just watching and marveling at the precision and craft required to keep this one take going. I can’t imagine being one of the actors or extras flubbing a single line at, say, the 85 minute mark. I watched for hidden cuts that most one-take films or scenes go for and I didn’t see any (and it’s not a high enough budget to craft a CGI-enhanced cut). The camera operator is probably the star of the flick, moving with grace and ease… following actors from the floor of the restaurant to the kitchen and out to an alley, for example, without tripping or stumbling into a stray pot or pan.

Apparently the film was made in a real operating restaurant and it shows. The place feels lived (worked?) in, like it’s a real practical location with its own presence. I only worked in food services for three or four months as a teenager and yet this brings me back to the hustle and bustle. I particularly appreciated the feeling of the different stations… as in when the camera leads into a side food prep area and lingers, it has a different energy than when it moves into the back room and hangs with the bakers and dishwashers.

I just wish that I was drawn in more to the major plot involving the head chef. He’s an excellent actor and the story is fine, it just isn’t as powerful as I was hoping for. Same is true for all the other little side-stories running throughout. And, frankly, I wanted to follow some of those sub-plots longer, especially one involving a demanding, racist table and the black waitress who had to deal with them.

All in all, still a very, very good film. Well worth watching as pure drama but also as a study in film craft.

Score: 89