Sure, Thor is charming in a brutish way, but that becomes tiresome after a while. It’s like sure, we get that you can swing a hammer but are you a good listener? Are there more dimensions to you than “hammer smash now”? And then it happened: Thor served breakfast. Now look, I’m a straight male, like a Kinsey zero even. But I would like Thor to cook me breakfast. I don’t know if it’s the Hemsworth eyes and beard that your eyes could rest on as he’s scooping them onto your plate, or the fact that this powerful dude would probably cook some killer eggs. And I know it’s the Natalie Portman character that actually does the eggs but if Thor can find the gentleness and grace with which to not break the plates he brings them over on, surely he can master the cooking part. And I’m pretty sure he made that toast himself. It’s a work in progress. I don’t know.
The point is that it can trigger visceral, strange things when we see food in movies. It’s one of those elements of film that taps into something deeply instinctual, like the impulse to protect the damsel in distress or stick up for the bullied. Filmmakers know this, and when they can channel the image and sound of food into a making a scene more compelling, it can be tremendously affecting. A film that makes us salivate is every bit as special as one that makes us cry, I say.
