Moviegoers looking to find love in unexpected places will certainly find it in the movie, "The Lunchbox." From the very beginning, this movie finds its way into your heart through your stomach and takes you on a sweet and surprisingly funny journey through the crowded streets of Mumbai. Despite all odds, two strangers who have never met find a special connection through sending letters through a lunchbox. Audiences will not only enjoy finding out what’s for lunch for the two main characters, they’ll also be rooting for the supporting characters who practically become the main course.

"The Lunchbox" starts with housewife Ila (Nimrat Kaur) trying to add some spice to her marriage. She prepares a delicious new dish for her husband’s lunch, hoping to get some kind reaction from her uninterested husband. This lunchbox, though, happens to be the exception in Mumbai’s famously efficient lunchbox delivery system. The lunch is mistakenly delivered a widowed office worker, Saajan (Irrfan Khan from "Life of Pi"), and Ila’s husband comes home with hardly anything to say to his hardworking wife. The next day, a curious Ila puts a little note in the following day’s lunchbox, and so begins the exchange of notes and hopes and fears between Saajan and Ila.

Director Ritesh Batra does a superb job of pacing the story. Even though the audience knows the routine of finding notes in the lunchbox, the scenes when Saajan unstacks his lunch container still have a solid tablespoon of suspense. It works perfectly in a movie which emphasizes the small joys in the mundane and impersonal routine of city life. Between scenes of crowded commutes and everyday cooking, Kaur and Khan expertly play their roles with the subtlety necessary to make the entire premise realistic. Their virtual relationship does not make them drop everything and run away together, like so many lovers do in romance movies. Rather, their relationship becomes an anchor in the midst of the chaos of their real lives.

In fact, Saajan and Ila’s lives outside of the lunchbox notes are some of the high points of the film, particularly their relationships with the supporting characters. Saajan’s overly enthusiastic co-worker has impeccable comedic timing, and his optimistic attitude makes him likable to audiences. Their developing relationship as friends is almost as much about love as the main story line. Another favorite supporting character is Auntie, a character that is never seen on screen but still steals the show anyways. Auntie is Ila’s neighbor and confidante, and her remarks from her upstairs apartment are the kinds of things that best friends would say. She tells it like it is, and audiences will love her for it.

While the main characters are well developed, I couldn’t help but feel like I wanted more from some of the other minor characters. Saajan’s storyline with his co-worker is great, but on Ila’s side, there are a lot of loose ends. Her daughter and her mom come into the story for only a few short scenes, and I would have loved to see more from them. Also, her husband makes his appearance in the first twenty minutes of the movie, and then he’s gone.

In a world of online dating, of cutthroat competition for job success, and of busy urban life, audiences will find plenty of themes that resonate with them in this film. It’s no wonder that this film has found so much success on the international film festival circuit. "The Lunchbox" was an official selection at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2013 Telluride Film Festival. It also won the Critics' Week Viewers Choice Award at the 2013 Cannes International Film Festival. So go ahead and indulge. It’s lunchtime.

"The Lunchbox" opens Friday, Feb. 28 in Los Angeles and New York.  In Hindi and English, with English subtitles.

Reach Staff Writer Meghan Coyle here.