Thursday, July 26, 2007

Movie review: No Reservations

Luciano Pavarotti stands in for Barry White: feel the love.

By John P. Meyer

No Reservations

Master chef Kate Armstrong lives her life like she runs her kitchen at a trendy Manhattan eatery--with a no-nonsense intensity that both captivates and intimidates everyone around her. Kate's perfectionist nature is put to the test when she "inherits" her nine-year-old niece Zoe, while contending with a brash new sous-chef who joins her staff. High-spirited and freewheeling, Nick Palmer couldn't be more different from Kate, yet the chemistry between them is undeniable. Rivalry becomes romance, but Kate will have to learn to express herself beyond the realm of her kitchen if she wants to connect with Zoe and find true happiness with Nick.

Source: Cinema Source

• Showtimes and more on No Reservations

No Reservations offers up this summer movie season's second cinematic serving of haute cuisine and the chefs who sling it. If this outing plays second culinary fiddle, consider that it competes against a sympathetic cartoon rat and the animated lights of Paris for our regard. So cut it a soupçon of slack.

Kate Armstrong (Catherine Zeta-Jones, who looks like Geena Davis in the movie poster but thankfully not in the film itself) is your typical tightly-wound anal-retentive top chef who actually prepares meals for her psychologist as part of therapy. (O.K., the good doctor - Bob Balaban - is actually trying to break her of this habit, but he still rather appreciates the perk.) Kate might as well cook for him - most of what she unloads verbally has to do with nuances of seasoning and the manner in which her culinary presentations are received by restaurant patrons. Personal life? There's nothing to discuss: Kate's work IS her life...

Kate waxes poetic on the subtleties of saffron sauce as her therapist considers the genuine item.

Until events in the form of a fatal auto accident conspire to make a reluctant mom out of her, dropping into her aproned lap the guardianship of young niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin, last year's supporting actress nominee for Little Miss Sunshine). Together, Kate and Zoe must come to terms with the death of a very special person in each of their lives, and in so doing (one hopes) they may grow into more complete and fully-functional individuals. But that's putting the rather maudlin horse ahead of the entertainment cart.

In the midst of her family crisis, Kate's kitchen is also in turmoil: Paula (Patricia Clarkson, doing a fine job portraying the correct balance of superciliousness, practicality and compassion - heavy on the superciliousness), the owner of the tony restaurant for which Kate cooks, is scrambling to cover while her chef takes a week off to acclimatize to her new role of single parent. To complicate matters, Kate's trusted sous chef is about to take maternity leave, promising another imminent leak in the key back-of-house talent pool. So Paula, turning practical, hires an energetic and accomplished young chef named Nick (Aaron Eckhart) to fill in. Without consulting Kate. (D'OH! Time out for a heated discussion in the walk-in freezer.)

Starring Geena... I mean, Catherine...

Surprise: Nick and Kate don't get along, and it's no fault of Nick's: he's a genial and enthusiastic presence in the kitchen, playing Pavarotti on the boom box while he fillets and flambés with flourish. Everyone on staff loves him - except for Kate, who cannily sees him as a threat to her authority in the room, not to mention her job.

Mr. Eckhart displays a genuine likability in this role: he's just a big happy blond bear of a fellow who understands the importance of having a puckered chin and a pickup truck; he wears his rugged good looks and unpretentious friendliness like a slobbering puppy dog wears a flea collar. We all know that Kate's going to eventually fall for him, and all but the most comatose will figure out that it'll be through Zoe's affection that Nick breaks through Kate's emotional body armor.

See, Kate's been trying to feed Zoe the same sort of food she serves to her demanding restaurant clientèle, forgetting (or not even realizing) that little girls don't necessarily crave whole mackerel presented eyes-staring-from-plate with a garnish of parsley; rather, they might actually want a grilled cheese sandwich, which is what Nick cooks up for Zoe when she spends an evening in the restaurant's kitchen. Soon Zoe is inviting Nick to dinner at Kate's place; not long thereafter Nick and Kate are making romantic use of blindfolds and saffron sauce to the accompaniment of "Nessun dorma" from Turandot (Luciano P. standing in for Barry White), but by the time this transpires it comes off as less trite than it might have because the screenplay (by German director/writer Sandra Nettelbeck, along with Carol Fuchs) has allowed the characters to develop a genuine chemistry, and their circumstances warrant the hookup.

"It's all in the wrist..."

CZJ does a creditable job of turning an unsympathetic character into an approachable one (it's clear Kate is willing to sacrifice to make her life with Zoe work), but it's the moving performance of Ms. Breslin that carries the piece: Zoe at first appears sad and truly lost to be without her Mom, adrift in an uncomfortably sterile household in an unfamiliar city, though she soon conveys a stoic resolve to see through the difficulties she's experiencing with her aunt/guardian - what other choice does she have? It's during these grim coming-to-grips sequences that Philip Glass' ever-lugubrious score seems most appropriate.

Although it's important for guys to remember that this is, at root level, a woman's movie, there are a number of clever episodic touches that make a magnanimous, popcorn-munching, waiting-for-the-romantic-payoff approach worthwhile, not the least of which is the scene involving the black market truffle purveyor who comes off like a sort of affable Russian mobster, wheeling and dealing his rare and expensive fungal delicacies by cell phone, though reluctant to use his line of communication to contact 911 in the event of a medical emergency.

While No Reservations serves up little that could be described as innovative in romantic comedy bill of fare, the expected offerings are presented with a savory freshness. Goes down good with a Coke and a Mr. Goodbar.

GROWTH INDUSTRY? - "It's for my thesis: rapidly mutating deadly viruses." - goth baby sitter to Kate, re. her odd choice of reading material.

MADE TO BE BROKEN - "You seem to have a lot of rules." - Nick to Kate, re. her policy of not dating anyone from work.

CHEF PECCADILLO - "Don't touch my Tupperware." - Nick, re. the pre-prepared ingredients he's brought to Kate's for dinner.

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• Arts > Movies / Film > Mainstream Movies

Comments

Teresa Gubbins Staff

1. i heart bob balaban. i'm glad to see him on screen again. did you happen to see that he was recently in entourage, also playing a doctor?

2. because i like dissent, i'm going to offer up my dissenting opinion on who CZJ looks like in that poster: rachael ray. makes more sense, given that it's a foodie kind of thing?

1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )