This entry was posted on Saturday, July 28th, 2007 at 10:26 am and is filed under Comedy, Dramedy, Movie Reviews, N. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Scott Hicks
Starring: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart, Abigail Breslin, Patricia Clarkson, Jenny Wade, Bob Balaban, Brian F. O’Byrne
Catherine Zeta-Jones is great in this remake of the 2001 German film, Mostly Martha. The tasty romantic drama/comedy is set in the kitchen of a posh restaurant and Aaron Eckhart exudes charisma and screen presence as he applies his own natural and unaffected talent and charm to the project. Young Abigial Breslin (of Little Miss Sunshine fame) continues to improve her acting skills here, as well. It’s very sad at times (I’m not giving anything away. See below), but is mostly upbeat, lively and fun.
Catherine Zeta-Jones is Kate, the stubborn head chef of a fancy French Manhattan eatery, who keeps her life, and her kitchen, firmly under control even if she has to lose her temper once in awhile to do it. Kate’s carefully planned life takes an unexpected turn, however, when her sister dies suddenly and has left wishes that Kate take care of her precocious young daughter, Zoe (Abigail Breslin in an impressive scene-stealing role). Added to this disruption is the hiring of a new sous-chef at the restaurant to cover the added time off that Kate needs. Enter the opera-singing, croc-wearing Nick (Aaron Eckhart), whose infectious personality is soon winning over everyone, but Kate. This movie uses more montages than any film in recent memory, but they fit in nicely.
The chemistry between the three lead performers is very good and the high-energy restaurant kitchen setting works well, too. The story is simple romantic formula fare and could have been punched up with a few more jokes, but this is still a light (mostly) and pleasant summer drama that will be popular with the girls and their guys won’t hate it either, except you may have to explain how come you don’t cook. I had to.
