If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This film is spectacular. As one who felt I related to a lot of it despite the difference of time era, it summed up not accepting what life throws at you. You don't have to put up with others if they treat you badly and this is a huge theme people should spread more. You can be whatever you want if you put your mind to it and don't let anyone stand in your way. This film was hard to watch at times for it's flashback's to my own life but definitely glad I found it.

The British always seem to have such interesting faces, and because of that their movies seems to have more depth and feeling than American movies. Toast is no exception. This movie contains little dialogue and relies much on visual communication, which could easily have turned it into one of those movies that makes you glance at your watch every twenty minutes. But the casting of such physically unique individuals makes it riveting.The dynamics of family. I know, I know. Do we really need to go there again? Yes we do, and Toast puts it out there in a raw, you-are-scarred-for-life way that we can all relate to. It hurts to watch the way Nigel Carter, the British food writer on whose biography the movie is based, hurl insults at his dying mother, knowing this behavior will haunt him in the end. It's equally hard to watch the miscommunication between father and son—this could be any home in America where parents and children seem to speaking foreign tongues to each other, tearing the already weakened fabric of parent-child relationships. It's a wonder anyone survives.But Nigel was a survivor. I liked how he listened to the voice inside him, ignoring society's pressure to fit in. In school he was the only male who chose to take home economics over shop, and he stood at his father's wedding by the cake he'd made so carefully, even though the wedding represented everything that would alienate him even further from his father. Our Nigel did it his way. I half-expected to to hear that Frank Sinatra song at some point during the film.I loved the reference to toast. "Soft inside the toasted shell, where the butter nestles in…" or something like that. I loved toast when I was growing up, and I think it is the only comfort food that doesn't have a sugar base. My personal favorite was cinnamon toast, but hey, to each his own. I have never met anyone who doesn't like toast, and it was a perfect metaphor.Which leads us to wonder, is it possible Nigel's mother was that bad a cook? Is it possible that someone could boil cans for dinner and burn them? Go see Toast. Then cook something. Feed those you love with culinary delights you enjoy making and let the sweet and savory fetes roll.Nice film.

Eat that bloody pie! With the same script writer as "Billy Elliot" it's easy to see they have tried you make some of the same with "Toast", except this is much more of a comedy. A strict father, not very understanding of a sons needs and dreams. The film is almost Wes Anderson'ish in it's feel. Think "Moonrise kingdom", with a dash of "Chocolat" and you're there, in the same kind of tasty childhood universe.This is based on memories of the childhood of Nigel Slater, a famous British cook and cookbook writer. He appears as a chef in the final scene of the film as a cameo.Young Nigel grows up in Wolverhampton, and as 9 years old, writing 1969, he no longer can stand his life home, with his parents. His grumpy uptight dad and his hopeless cook of a mother, suffering from bad asthma (probably due to her never eating any vitamins). Nigel has the tinned food mom put on the table, but loves her for her toasts with butter. When his father sacks the gardener dye to him damaging Nigel with the love for freshly grown veggies, he's had enough. Nigel's fantasy helps him survive. His longing for some real tasty food, and fresh vegetables and fruits makes him want to become a cook. The takes the long way to get there, as he don't even have a little encouragement back home. But the death of his mother, which he still misses after her demise, and the wise word of his young friend, "The way to a mans heart, is always through his stomach", changes everything.It's a cute story, though maybe a bit sugar coated for my taste. Still, if you can overbear that, you'll enjoy this. Cute and lovely, though quite slow. Well done 60'ies portrait, as always when it comes to British films. Helena Bonham Carter really does her best role ever here, I think. She's very strong, and very unlike other roles she's had lately, even if it's some of the same comic demands.Main character Nigel, played by Oscar Mennedy, might annoy some, but then he wasn't very loved as a child, but the older, played by amazing Freddie Highmore makes it all come right. Highmore is a real charmer. The casting of Oscar Kenbecy was impossible to fill Freddue Highmores shoes here, making some of the films main problem. Not due to him, because he does his best, but more to the extreme talent of Highmore. Not only the father, but also Nigel changes when he gets the right food. They can be used as the excuse for the change in character.

An utterly tedious watch, I saw this at the film festival here in Mumbai. There is no sense of progression or screenplay, no genuine engagement in characters, and actually it's very fertile material for all these things.That it was a true story only came to me when the film ended and I saw the final card with Nigel Slater's picture. But, an interesting life doesn't make for a great film (or even a good one), if the story is not well-told.The genre 'TV Movie' is right for this film, and that is where it should remain. It works at episodes strung together, watched at comfortable intervals. It's not 'appetising' film viewing.