Personal comments

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2008)

How can I fail to comment on this delightful film? Not only is it wonderful entertainment and pleasant to watch, it is about a country in which I currently live, about a subject very close to my heart  food, that is!  and contains seemingly extraneous elements of personal importance.
The basis, if not the model, of the film's centerpiece is a restaurant near my home town, Napa, California. Thomas Keller's famous 'French Laundry' occupies a building that was once a real laundry in the 19th century post-Gold-Rush days of Yountville, in the center of the Napa Valley. His restaurant is now one of the most famous in America and a feature of the Valley's colorful late 20th century renaissance.
Another nostalgic connection is a real version of the automobile belonging to the character Skinner, an 1960s Facel Vega, belonged to a colleague of mine when we worked in Geneva, Switzerland. He took it with him when he returned to America to live near Washington, DC. Not only did this elegant French automobile have an American engine but also had the distinctive Chevrolet wraparound wind screen of the era. I don't know that the US components kept it from being more popular; I think it was simply another example of the many makes produced in small numbers that did not differentiate themselves and survive in the marketplace.
All-in-all, 'Ratatouille' is both a charming film but also a nostalgic reminder for me of pleasant times.