The Menu Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

2. Ralph Fiennes' Unconvincing American Accent

Ralph Fiennes is a terrific actor and, on paper, seems perfectly cast as the quietly unhinged celebrity chef about to put his customers through a night of hell.

Yet for reasons that remain unclear, the decision was made to have Fiennes speak with an American accent for the role, and as much as we all love him, a stateside twang isn't his strongest suit as a performer. As a result, it's a regular distraction.

From the first moment we see him, Fiennes' American accent sounds totally phoney, and even if you accept that Julian could've picked up a strange hybrid of American and British accents from his time working as a chef in the U.S., that excuse doesn't totally wash.

Most of the time when Fiennes speaks, it's easy to hear him wrestling with and trying to suppress his own native English accent, at which point you have to wonder why he didn't just play the part that way instead.