🔴 Condition - Like New 🔴

The cook, Richard (Richard Bohringer), is the French proprietor of the Le Hollandais restaurant and an narcissistic perfectionist constantly preoccupied with the production of fine cuisine. For a master chef, Richard demonstrates a complete indifference as to whether his food is consumed or not - at the end of each evening, he simply discards the remnants into the trash bins located at the rear of the restaurant. Exploiting the thief's immense wealth in order to perfect his culinary delicacies, the cook endures his bestial conduct.
The thief, Albert Spica (Michael Gambon), has unrealistic aspirations to become a certified gourmet chef, which he believes will aid him in his purpose to elevate his social status. Albert is the epitome of human depravity, an unscrupulous gangster and protection-racketeer, who revels in humiliating his wife through a constant routine of physical and psychological abuse.
The wife, Georgina Spica (Helen Mirren), seems to be forever destined to a fearful existence of boredom and martyrdom. Through her frequent visits to the restaurant with Spica, Georgina soon becomes acquainted with a modest and placid-natured bookstore owner; within moments of their initial meeting, they consummate their lust in the restaurant's bathroom. With each subsequent visit to the Le Hollandais, Georgina continues her liaisons with her lover, further increasing their risk of being discovered by her brutal husband.
The lover, Michael (Alan Howard) is an unassuming intellectual with a self-depreciating sense of humour. Assured of his place in the scheme of things, Michael's first passion is the small book depository which he operates. From innocuous beginnings, his flirtations with Georgina descend into a spiraling vortex of deceit, treachery, and violence - accumulating in a stomach-churning climax which defies reason.