D.C. MOVIE GUYS

Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is a great chef.  A real wizard with all kinds of food and spices.  The small restaurant she works in one of the most popular in New York.  She rules her kitchen, and its staff, with a stern hand and manner.  She’s even willing to fight with the owner of the restaurant and the customers, if they have the nerve to complain about one of her creations.  That’s why, as “No Reservations,” the new romantic comedy/drama starring Zeta-Jones, begins, Kate is an interesting place-anger management therapy.

As Kate tries to get a handle on her anger, she’s expecting a visit from her unmarried sister and her niece, Zoe (Abigail Breslin, from the Oscar-winning “Little Miss Sunshine.”)  When a car accident kills the sister and unjures Zoe, Kate finds herself having to assume another role with difficult responsibilities: parent of a child she’s spent little time with.

Back at the restaurant, Kate also finds she needs to adjust to a major change.  While Kate sorts out getting Zoe settled in her home, the restaurant’s owner hires a new ssistant chef to work with her.  Nick (Aaron Eckhart) is a smotth, relaxed and clever guy, in many ways, the opposite of Kate.
Like Kate, he’s  also a terrific chef.  Wary of Nick’s willingness to be a number two when he has the skills to be a number one and concerned that she may not have the skills to connect with Zoe, Kate soon finds herself pulled in two directions and searching her heart and mind to find the right answer.

Director Scott Hicks and screenwriters Carol Fuchs and Sandra Nettelbeck allow their story to build to a boil, not unlike a stew or soup you cook all day until it’s it’s served for dinner.  While the slow unfolding of events and development of characters feels a bit too restrained from time to time, the laughs and emotions blossom at the right times.  The talents of Zeta-Jones, Breslin and Eckhart keeps us involved and engaged in the story as it begins to hit its stride.  A solid supporting cast, led by Patricia Clarkson as Paula, the restaurant owner and Bob Balaban as Kate’s therapist, add spice to the solidly constructed, if familiar, story.

An entertaining Americanization of the Greman arthouse hit “Mostly Martha,”  “No Reservations” is the kind of pleasant and refreshingly unpretentious film making that makes for a pleasant evening at the movies.  In other words, I have zero reservations about sending you to see it,

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for mild profanity and sexuality.
JOE’S RATING: THREE STARS.

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Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (with DVD and Writing about Movies Booklet)

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The Independent Movie Poster Book

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