SUNDANCE REVIEW – Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortenssen star in Eating Bacon with Malcolm.
Eating Bacon with Malcolm tells the story of a young boy – newcomer Jake Seed – who on the death of his father, temporarily loses the urge to eat bacon. His mother has buried herself in work to avoid grief and the neglected kid needs also to contend with a new city, where mother and son have moved to. In flashback, Malcolm’s relationship to his inspirational father is seen through a series of breakfasts the two ate together, while Naomi Watts the mother, is buried in work.
A bittersweet comedy, the occasionally flimsy conceit is more than held up by some exceptional performance – particularly from newcomer Seed. The only blot is Mortensen who spends the whole film randomly using insulting racial epithets. He seems to be trying to prove a point. The ever reliable Watts is amazing as the mother who has thrown herself into her work and slowly discovers that she is losing her son. But Seed is the revelation. It’s almost as if Jess Plemons ate Timothée Chalamet and then shit him out as a young Paul Newman. The final scene – where SPOILER Malcolm eats bacon – had the audience in tears. Music by the one guy from Radiohead who hasn’t done a score yet was acoustic guitary.
