‘Bubble & Squeak’ Review: Himesh Patel and Sarah Goldberg Star in a Contrived Marriage Fable

In Evan Twohy’s twee debut feature Bubble & Squeak, a couple gets detained by police while honeymooning in an unnamed country. We meet Declan (Himesh Patel) and Delores (Sarah Goldberg) in an ascetic holding area, anxiously awaiting their interrogation. When Bkofl, an attending officer played by Steven Yeun (also a producer on the film), walks into the room, he, with humorous solemnity, asks the couple if they are smuggling cabbages into this vaguely Slavic-coded province.  

It’s a strange but grave accusation. This tiny country has a charged relationship with cabbages, which were forced upon its people during a long, abstract war. The vegetable is now illegal and most of the population abhors it. Declan and Delores deny the claim. These American honeymooners know better than to sneak in contraband. Odd, then, that the room smells like cabbage and even more curious that the couple, the moment they are left unattended, escape through a window. 

With this set-up, Bubble & Squeak kicks off, propelled by absurdism. The film, which premiered at Sundance and is based on Twohy’s play of the same name, draws from the fanciful aesthetics associated with Wes Anderson and the heightened weirdness of Yorgos Lanthimos. Twohy, like Anderson, revels in the details and internal logic of his world. But there are times when this debut feature, which premiered at Sundance in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, plays like a bit that’s overstayed its welcome. 

Twohy is an assured director. Working with production designer Mela Melak (A Real Pain), he builds the world of Bubble & Squeak carefully, imbuing the fictional locale with the radiance of a real place. From the moment Declan and Delores enter the forest, Twohy’s film feels like a fairytale. The couple’s journey through the woodland area — marked by towering trees, vibrant greens and shades of sunny yellows (cinematography is by Anna Smoroňová)  — mirrors Goldilocks’ or Hansel and Gretel’s adventures through the forest. In every chapter, which Twohy demarcates with title cards set to foreboding music (score by Brad Oberhofer, I Wish You All The Best), the couple comes across a new obstacle. Not only do the hurdles reveal information about the country (confidently announced by Declan, who was the only one to actually read the travel guides); they also underscore the fault lines within this young marriage. 

Seamlessly mixing these two threads — a sentimental study of an unstable union and a screwball comedy — becomes more challenging as Bubble & Squeak progresses. It’s acknowledged early on that Delores is in fact smuggling the cabbages, stuffing them in her pants and claiming they are tumors whenever anyone asks, but the gag stalls soon after its introduction. This gonzo premise doesn’t have anywhere else to go, and to compensate, Twohy pads the screenplay with quirky antics that tax viewer patience and expose a narrative thinness that’s hard to ignore. 

As Delores and Declan traverse the forest, they are chased by Bkofl’s boss Shazbor (a scene-stealing Matt Berry), who plans to cut off their fingers and publicly execute them for breaking the law. Shazbor and his army hound the duo, whose wit, combined with the help of strangers, helps them evade capture. Their first good samaritans are Jelenka (Inga Salurand) and Yaroslav (Jaak Prints), a married couple who live in the forest with their discerning son Timotej (Samuel Arulepp). In their house, over a rich lunch of meat stew, Delores and Declan learn more about the nation’s cabbage scorn, make the same joke about Delores’ pants and demonstrate further incompatibility before taking off again.  

Crossing paths with Norman (Dave Franco), another cabbage smuggler who disguises himself as the country’s beloved national bear to escape detection, briefly enlivens Bubble & Squeak by increasing the stakes. Norman, a fast-talking salesman type, inspires Delores and annoys Declan. In these scenes, as well as the previous ones with Shazbor and his army, Twohy pulls committed and, on occasion, genuinely funny performances from his cast. Patel (Station Eleven, The Assessment) and Goldberg (Barry) rarely falter as this asynchronous couple caught in a farcical situation. Not only do they dedicate themselves to the ridiculous set-up, but they also effectively translate the broader points of Twohy’s straightforward marriage fable. The longing glances exchanged after moments of misunderstanding and the strain in their voices as their characters try to maintain composure clue us in to the relationship cracks.

Unfortunately, this isn’t enough to help Twohy’s feature, which is named after a cabbage dish, overcome a nagging sense of contrivance. Delores and Declan encounter obstacles that have little point except to teach them lessons telegraphed earlier, and it becomes more challenging for even the most generous viewer to believe what Bubble & Squeak is trying to say.