In this decidedly old-fashioned movie British filmmaker John Goldschmidt lays on the schmaltz with a charming wee tale of how a small part of a traditional Jewish bakery struggles to adapt to the demands of contemporary life in London’s East End. Sixty-something-year-old widower Nat Dayn (an excellent Jonathan Pryce) is something of a curmudgeon who is struggling to keep open the Kosher Baker Shop that has been in his family for over a hundred years. As the area has gentrified his clientele drastically dwindled and many have moved away, and his own son, a successful lawyer, has no interest in becoming the next generation to take on the store.
When his only assistant is lured away by the large grocery chain that is moving into the neighborhood, Nat who is left with hardly any options agrees to take on Ayyash (an impressive Jerome Holder) the teenage son of his immigrant cleaning woman. The boy is equally reluctant to work in the bakery but he has no luck finding any legitimate employment and the local drug dealer will only employ him if he has a legitimate ‘cover job’ so he accepts.
strange pair … especially at prayer time … but they somewhat begrudgingly get along. Then one day after Ayyash accidentally spills some of the marijuana that he has been dealing with on the side into the dough, the resulting challah loaves are such a big success. As demands for the bread now starts to grow, he gets the idea of using the not just continuing the practice but also of selling the hash to a whole new clientele who come in to the bakery buy some cakes/bread as cover.
Meanwhile the Bakery’s Landlady (an hilarious Pauline Collins) is a feisty Jewish matron who has been widowed just six weeks ago and she has two goals in mind. One is to sell up and move to Florida and secondly is to put the moves on Nat as a potential replacement husband. Whilst the Baker is slow to step up to the plate, the owner of the large grocery chain is anxious to expand its empire and pursues her aggressively to buy her property.
There are no real surprises in this fairly predictable story (except for some of the rather silly ending) and although this quintessential Brit movie is hardly a stretch of the imagination, it’s a warmhearted feel-good movie with its very gentle humor that softens the edge of the more serious underlying urban racial issue.
