'The Taste of Things' review: Juliette Binoche serves up some exquisite culinary drama

Since it premiered and won a directing prize at the Cannes Film Festival last May, Tran Anh Hung's "The Taste of Things" has been described — and sometimes dismissed — as a gastronome's delight, a worthy heir to the food-porn throne occupied by classics like "Babette's Feast" and "Eat Drink Man Woman." None of this is incorrect. For much of this absorbing and pleasurable movie, we are in a rustic 19th century French kitchen, savoring, with our eyes and ears if not our taste buds, the preparation of one exquisite dish after another. Each course is practically a feast unto itself: vol-au-vent, roasted veal loin, poached turbot, baked Alaska — and that's just the first half-hour.