MovieChat Forums > Food of Love (2002) Discussion > Beautiful Kevin Bishop wasted

Beautiful Kevin Bishop wasted

posted 17 years ago by yawnmower1
3 replies | jump to latest

Kevin Bishop is a knock-out in this film. As this is his only real romantic lead in a major film, it is a shame that his talent and beauty are wasted in such crap.

The photography and score are good, but the film is a joke in terms of story, script, characterizations and morals. The only thing poor Paul learns is that all the people around him are liars and lechers. It is a shame that he doesn't use his stunning looks to his professional advantage. Careers have been built on less. This movie leaves us with the impression that Paul just gives up. Not very satisfying, because we want him to learn something and change course.

Mr. Bishop only has two other major films. He plays an annoying buffoon in L'Auberge Espagnol, and the same character (though somewhat matured) in its sequel, Les Pouppees Russes.

He has done a ton of TV work in England but, as in Food of Love, he has not really had the opportunity to come into his own on screen. We, as fans, have been cheated. Hurry up, film makers, while he is still so beautiful!

[–] maltewessels 17 years ago

"Food of Love" surely has its flaws. But I would not share your harsh criticism. The leading idea of the movie is that of finding a way to each other and the caresses of a loving hand expressing this being near to each other. KB shows perfectly inexperienced Paul's being stunned with this new experience of being touched by a lover. But eventually it is all about Paul and his mother finding a way to each other and I think the movie tells this story quite beautifully and in a very touching fashion. Not to mention great music.

I think many critics were overwhelmed with the subtlety of the story, everybody (me included) expected a sort of gay romance thing, but that's not what the film is truly about.

It is unfortunate that "Food of Love" did not do exceedingly well in the theatres, but we're living in the age of the DVD now and I'm sure the movie will become a sort of a classic.

That being said I still share your regrets that KB did not get more leading roles since. But may be he simply doesn't want to play with the big boys?

[–] daschund 16 years ago

Yes, he is a beautiful Ganymede (as the film implies) but doesn't seem to know it in the film. I suspect that he doesn't know it in real life either, for he appears to speak a sort of lowbrow estuary English and dress badly. As a "preppy" American in nice clothes and speaking as an educated American he was quite simply the most achingly beautiful male actor we've seen. He leaves all those US and British so-called celebrities for dead, and could act them all into a cocked hat, with his sensitivity and his lovely face, that pre-knows the sadness to come.

As a well-spoken (like Jeremy Irons)and well dressed English equivalent of the American preppy he should be playing the leads in Brideshead Revisited, Saki's young Edwardian wags and works of that kind, which call for a beautiful young man who is masculine and beautiful at the same time, as he was in Food of Love. He should be starring in re-makes of the sorts of things that Barry Justice did in the sixties and seventies. He's got that sort of appeal.

[–] fl1 14 years ago

Maybe he's not wasted, he's just not so good (apart from not being so handsome).