Movie Review: Gourmet Detective - Roux the Day

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Strong leads in a fun mystery

Cons: A couple supporting performances are weak

The Bottom Line:

Valuable book

Basis for this mystery

Lots of fun to watch

“You Want to Delay Going to a Game to Buy a Book?”

I’d written off the Gourmet Detective franchise at Hallmark since it’s been three years since we last visited Henry, Maggie, and the rest of the gang.  I was delighted to learn we were going to get a new movie featuring these characters, and Roux the Day was worth the wait.

San Francisco detective Maggie (Brooke Burns) is delighted that she has finally gotten Henry (Dylan Neal) to agree to attend a baseball game.  However, he just has one stop to make along the way.  He’s been hired to authenticate and bid on a chef’s book for a closed restaurant at a charity auction.  For those, like me, not familiar with the term, a chef’s book is the book used in a restaurant that holds the master recipes everyone uses when they cook there.  It has notes and scribbles and is fascinating for those into the foodie scene.  This particular chef’s book has been missing since the restaurant closed years ago.

When Henry and Maggie arrive, they learn the book has already been sold.  Being resourceful, Maggie learns who bought to book, and they arrive at his shop only to find dead.  With the game now just a memory, the two are plunged into another baffling case.  Who has the book?  Is it worth killing over?

This movie soars because of the chemistry between the leads.  There is an ease between them that makes their scenes sparkle and their banter seem effortless.  It is a pleasure to watch the two of them on screen together.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that they are working on a puzzling mystery.  We quickly get some good suspects, and they kept me guessing until we reached the climax.  I’m a little surprised at how the climax unfolded, but I’m not going to complain too loudly since it gave us a fun, suspenseful scene.

I appreciated how it took both Maggie and Henry to solve the crime.  They both contributed things along the way that ultimately solved things.

As much praise as I gave Brooke Burns and Dylan Neal, there are some weaker performances from the rest of the cast.  The Hallmark cheese is kept to a minimum in the script, but there are a couple of actors who still manage to give us a small dose along the way.

On the other hand, I enjoyed getting to see the rest of the regular supporting cast again.  This is especially true of Bruce Boxleitner, who plays Henry’s father.  He gets a fantastically funny scene at one point, and several other good scenes.  I’ve been a fan of his for years, so any time he pops up in something I’m watching, I enjoy it.

Roux the Day was another fun mystery that left me smiling when I finished it.  Let’s hope we get to revisit these characters again soon.