The Kitchen is a crime drama film released in 2019 and directed by Andrea Berloff in her directorial debut. The film is a adaptation of a comic book by the same name, written by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle, published by DC/Vertigo. It is set in the late 1970s and follows the life of three women who rise to power in the organized crime world of New York’s Hell’s Kitchen after their mobster husbands are incarcerated. Alongside Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and Elisabeth Moss, the film delves into themes like empowerment, survival, and the devastating consequences of the quest for power.
Setting and Premise
The film is set in 1978, a time marked by social and economic decline in New York City. The story starts with three Irish-American mobsters Jimmy, Kevin, and Rob are picked up by the FBI. While the mobsters are being arrested, their wives Kathy, Ruby, and Claire are left with nothing to support themselves financially. The local mob, under the leadership of disorganized lieutenant Little Jackie does not even attempt to provide for the families of the men who have been arrested.
As a reaction, the women decide to take charge on their own. They start gaining mastery over the criminal activities of their neighborhood. Underestimated at first, the women prove their capability at managing arm extortion, protection rackets, and construction deals. Although their ascension is rapid, it is accompanied by a cost in which loyalty is strained, violence ramps up, and the thin line between survival and chaos blurs.
Characters and Performances
Melissa Mccarthy features as Kathy Brennan, a mother of two children who effortlessly transitions into a leadership role. Kathy serves as an emotional anchor of the film. Her initial intention stems out of familial loyalty, but eventually reveals to us an emotionally cold persona who will do anything, including violence, to keep control of the domain.
Ruby O’Carroll is portrayed by Tiffany Haddish, who is married to Kevin O’Carroll. Ruby has historically been an Irish American mob because of intricate relationships stemming from her race and her dominant mother in law Helen O’Carroll. This her story is about an arc of seizing power from a system that has tried to deny her agency. She is one of the most ambitious characters and her exploits add obscurity to the film.
Elisabeth Moss portrays Claire Walsh as a submissive spouse of ‘Rob’, enduring physical and emotional mistreatment within her marriage. Claire opens up to the world after Rob’s incarceration, transforming to violence to find empowerment and purpose. Alongside a romance with ex-hitman Gabriel O’Malley, portrayed by Domhnall Gleeson, she matures her confidence and becomes cold and ruthless.
Margo Martindale chillingly shines as Ruby’s mother-in-law, Helen O’Carroll, a character who clings to antiquated organized crime values while resisting the women’s leadership shift to more progressive mob culture. Bill Camp, Common, and James Badge Dale round out the supporting cast in smaller roles, adding to the narrative’s gritty atmosphere.
Plot Development
Winning over local business owners and workers, the family touches expands their influence. Offering “genuine” protection and more favorable terms than previous validation, an uneasy Italian mafia alliance is established.
Closer examination of the world of organized crime quickly leads to the need to confront the grim reality: spiral into violence and betrayal ensues. Claire becomes increasingly violent, Ruby’s ambitions lead her to betray allies, and Kathy grapples with moral dilemmas as her choices slowly endanger her family.
The film’s climax uncovers a web of betrayals and power struggles. Claire perishes in an ambush that Ruby partly sets up, revealing her thirst for power overrides any loyalty she may have had. Eventually, Kathy confronts Ruby, and while both women recognize their shared ambition, their alliance is one of convenience rather than true friendship.
Themes and Style
The Kitchen leans towards a female empowerment narrative, approaching it from a darker angle. Instead of depicting the women as heroes, the film delves into the moral grayness of their actions. It examines whether the thirst for power corrupts individuals, regardless of gender, and questions the independence at what cost.
The film’s aesthetics mirrors its 1970s setting. Production design includes gritty, smoke-filled streets, period-accurate clothing, as well as a soundtrack filled with timeless tunes from the era. The cinematography depicts the harshness of Hell’s Kitchen using muted tones and shadows, highlighting the oppressive tension.
Andrea Berloff, the director, seeks to combine the stylistic fervor of classic mafia movies with a contemporary feminist angle. That said, a modern touch seems to be lacking the due attention it requires due to wobbly tone and unpolished subplots in the film. The film’s central character gets switching from one violent crime drama to a character study not fully focusing on either, thus creating moments of emotional dislocation.
The Reception and Box Office
The Kitchen is an exemplar of conflicting ideas about film reception as it garnered a rather lower grade from critics than the audience score. The film incorporated all emotions under the sky and missed. In this particular case, the pacing, tone, and emotional depth in the film coordinated to a level neglected in the sound track Berloff wrote.
On the financial side, the film was a failure in the U.S. theatres. Globally, the project earned about $16 million while its estimated budget was around $38 million. Fueled by the financial shortcoming following the film’s first release, the option to create additions to the content seems no longer viable.
Examination
The negative marks notwithstanding, The Kitchen is remarkable for three women are placed in the epicenter of action for a challenging adaptation of a text classically prevalent of men. The project breaks the assumption that only men are capable of complacency in crime while illustrating the countable range of options women will exhibit, given power in a brutal environment.
However, the film’s ambition exceeds its storytelling. Important themes such as race, domestic abuse, and gender inequality are addressed but never fully developed. Ruby’s struggle as a Black woman contending with a white criminal underbelly could have been a rich exploration, but it remains largely neglected. Claire’s trauma functions as a catalyst for her shift into the film’s second half, but the psychological impact of her actions is left unexplored.
Perhaps the most compelling is Kathy’s arc, demonstrating how necessity can transform into ambition, and the ease with which one can descend into moral degradation when survival is afoot.
Conclusion
The Kitchen is a bold but uneven attempt to refract the mob drama through the prism of female empowerment. The performances are strong, particularly from McCarthy, Haddish, and Moss, who deepen and nuance their characters. Nevertheless, the film’s issues with structure, tone, pacing, and cohesion undermine the narrative, making it less impactful than its premise promises.
Though the film may not have achieved success in terms of sales or received critical acclaim, The Kitchen stands out within the crime film category as it exposes the seldom examined women’s perspective of triumphing over a brutal, patriarchal society. Such representation alone earns the film appreciation, even if the overall cinematic execution does not align with its merits.
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