MOVIE · 1989

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

CrimeDrama125 min

After coarse gangster Albert Spica takes over an upscale French restaurant in London, he makes it his nightly court, terrorizing the staff and driving away customers with his appetites and cruelty. Helen Mirren is Georgina, his wife, who begins a secret affair with a quiet regular, Michael (Alan Howard), using the restaurant’s dining room, kitchen, and back corridors as cover. As their relationship deepens and Spica begins to suspect what’s happening, the film turns the restaurant into a sealed world of ritual, excess, and looming punishment.