Entranced With Vietnam
By Steve Herte
After one of the busiest
weeks at the office, including filing my taxes as well as my Dad's, it was good
to feel like a celebrity at the Cannes Film Festival and see a movie of
substance without ever having seen a trailer. Then, dining at a fine restaurant
in existence for 28 years was sheer pleasure. Indochine was only my sixth
Vietnamese restaurant but it won't be the last. Well, you'll see. Enjoy!
Trance (Fox Searchlight, 2013) Director: Danny
Boyle. Cast: James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, Vincent Cassel, Danny Sapani, Matt
Cross, and Wahab Sheikh. Color, 101 minutes.
“We’re playin’ those
mind games together, pushin’ the barriers, plantin’ seeds…”
-- John Lennon
After seeing Trance I’m
sure I don’t want to find out if I’m susceptible to hypnotism. The movie starts
with a training exercise at an auction house to prepare for a possible robbery.
Everyone has their place to be and their job to do to protect the valuables as
well as the patrons. The painting on display is taken to a side room and placed
in a zippered protective sleeve and dropped in a secret slot in an underground
wall from where it slides into the vault. The man in charge of this function is
our lead character, Simon (McAvoy). He is the inside man involved with a gang
of art thieves intending to steal Goyas “Witches in the Air” and hoping to get
a fraction of the millions of dollars it could get on auction.
The robbery goes without
a hitch, tear gas is used to disperse the patrons and the painting in the
protective sleeve is intercepted just before disappearing into the slot.
However, the leader of the group, Franck (Cassel) decides to open the sleeve to
check the painting and our lead man teases him. For this action he receives a
violent clout to the head with a shotgun, which decks him. The thieves leave
with their prize only to find out that the painting is no longer in the frame.
Nick, Dominic and Riz (Sapani, Cross, and Sheikh) pick up Simon for questioning
and torture. They determine that only he could have stolen and hid the painting
but the conk on the head has wiped his memory. Rather than kill him and go
through the ordeal of finding the painting, they decide to have him choose a
hypnotherapist and hopefully regain his memory.
He chooses Elizabeth Lamb
(Dawson) “because I like the name.” The scene switches to her office where
she’s helping various people with multiple mental and memory problems. She’s
confident as well as beautiful. To keep their theft from being discovered by
the therapist, Simon poses as a Mr. Maxwell and wears a wire so that his
cronies can listen in and give him a loud signal on his cell phone if he should
reveal too much. Lying that he’s trying to find his car keys (instead of a Goya
painting) she puts him into a trance, which leads him to the wardrobe of his
apartment (previously trashed by the gang members) and there they find . . .
his CAR KEYS.
Now the film becomes
complicated: Elizabeth has seen the wire sticking out of Simon’s shirt. Not
only that, she recognized him the minute he stepped into her office as the love
affair that went brutal in her past. She used hypnosis to make him forget her
but he falls in love with her all over again just the same (remember the conk
on the head?) and doesn’t know why.
Trance is described as a thriller and it is just
that. It’s also a clever mystery with several dream and trance sequences that
are difficult to tell from reality until the last minute. There are sensual
love scenes, nudity and foul language (but not unexpected). The characters are
all believable thanks to the flawless acting talents of the cast. The music is
used to heart-stopping volume at crucial scenes and is quite effective in
building excitement. The cinematography cleanly melds reality with dream to the
point that the audience has to shake themselves to tell the difference. There’s
even a flaming car crash for the Bruce Willis crowd and a surprise ending for
the “who done it?” fans.
I was involved for every
second of the hour and forty-one minutes of this film. It never dragged, there
were no dead spots, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I didn’t even mind the
smaller-than-usual screen size in the Angelica Theater.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Martini glasses.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Martini glasses.
Indochine
430 Lafayette Street
(between Astor Place and East 4th Street), New York City
There’s a faux
Vietnamese jungle inside an unprepossessing white stone building on Lafayette
Street in Noho. A few steps up from the street and through the door one is
transported to a garden outside a mansion built by a French colonist way back
when Vietnam was a part of Indochina, encompassing Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
(now Kampuchea). The greenish-beige walls have crossed banana palm fronds,
there are tall Dracaena (dragon) trees pretending to be palms, and large
bouquets with fragrant white lilies, Bird-of-Paradise, and ginger flowers
backed by palm fronds. The lighting is muted from the black disc-shaped swags
hanging from the ceiling.
An incredibly slim
African woman in a floor-length batik skirt and black blouse led me to my table
in the back portion of the restaurant, just past the bar. My leggy,
short-skirted brunette waitress, whose moniker was “Ford F,” appeared shortly
bringing a glass of water, the menu, wine list and drink menu. When she
returned I chose the Cucumber and Chili Martini – an enticing drink with vodka,
crushed cucumbers and chilies and apple juice. It was just exotic enough to fit
the atmosphere at Indochine and only slightly spicy.
The menu is a tripartite
fold-out with Soups and Salads on one third, Appetizers in the center and Main
Dishes and Sides on the third section. I started with a traditional Vietnamese
soup called Pho (pronounced like the French word for “fire,” feu),
which in this case was a clear golden beef stock with thinly sliced filet of
beef, rice noodles and bean sprouts, garnished with a sprig of fresh basil. The
presentation was lovely – the two-handled shiny metal bowl was set into a dark
wooden base – and the flavor, wonderful. I finished every drop (the handles
helped in drinking the remainder of the broth). At this point let it be said
that Pho is not a set recipe. In Vietnam, one can go to restaurants where you
can choose which ingredients you wish to have in your soup and you can make it
as wild or as mild as you want.
The wine list had
several affordable choices but since I was having a modicum of spices I chose
the 2008 “Mo-Zin” from Spann Vineyards, California – a varietal that is 67%
Zinfandel, 23% Mourvèdre, and 10% Syrah – an exciting combination of fruity and
full-bodied flavors without being too dry. It virtually shook hands with every
dish I chose.
The appetizer (which
accidentally arrived at the same time as the soup, but was taken back to the
kitchen when I commented on the fact) was Steamed Vietnamese Ravioli – filled
with chicken, shrimp, bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms and fried shallots – and
had to be re-made fresh by the time I finished my soup. It was served in a
bamboo steamer with a spoon hooked under the handle to make opening it easier.
For once, the four delicate, eggroll-shaped dumplings inside bore no
resemblance whatsoever to Italian ravioli. The light, rice-based dough was a
translucent pale green. They were so delicate that it was difficult to lift
them out with chopsticks, but I managed. After dipping them in the sweet,
fruity, delicately spiced sauce they were heavenly.
On to the main course,
Glazed Duck Breast – served neatly sliced and perfectly cooked on a bed of
long-stemmed Bok Choi in a baked Vidalia onion broth – tender and succulent. A
side dish of Sautéed (not fried) Rice with shrimp, green peas and egg was a
delightful accompaniment to the duck (although difficult to pick up with
chopsticks). The flavors were unbelievable and surprisingly I finished it all.
Is there room for
dessert? Of course. The Roasted Banana was perfect. Add to that a fresh brewed
Earl Grey tea and a glass of fine Grappa di Barolo, and Indochine has proved
itself to be an excellent dining experience. My only regret was that it took 28
years for me to be in the right neighborhood to dine there. There will
definitely be a return visit.
No comments:
Post a Comment