No Reservations 2007

      The life of a top chef changes when she becomes the guardian of her young niece.  Kate is a master chef and she runs her life like the upscale kitchen at 22 Bleecker Restaurant in Manhattan.  She has a no-nonsense attitude and an intensity that captivates or intimidates everyone around her?  She power through each hectic shift, coordinates hundred of meals, prepares delicate sauces, seasoning and simmering each dish to perfection.

     This film had the potential to be a great feel good and love story.  But, the story moves in a very predictable way?  The characters also have no depth?  We know that Kate is obsessed with her world but the remaining characters have unexplored and unexposed dimensions?  There appears to be too many reservations!!

     There are some serious themes such as the death of a single parent.  There is the perpetuation of the idea that ambitious, professionally successful woman all have lonely personal lives.  This is a typical odd-couple romantic movie with a young girl thrown into the pot.  3* (This movie is OK)

Note:  Rotten Tomatoes 42% with 162 critics 62% with 394,553 audience scores, Imdb 6.3* out of 10* with 70,165 reviews, Metacritic 50 out of 100 with 33 critics 6.6 out of 10 with 48 ratings, Roger Ebert 2*, Amazon 4.7* out of 5*, Common Sense Media 3* positive 3* language 3* consumerism, 3* drinking, drugs & smoking, The Guardian Peter Bradshaw 1* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Catherine Zeta-Jones worked for one evening as a server at a restaurant in New York Cit to prepare for her role.  Customers remarked about how much she resembled Catherine Zeta-Jones!!  She would reply in a fake American accent that, “she hears that all the time!!” Aaron Eckhart accidentally sliced off one of his fingernails while cutting onions??  He didn’t notice until Abigail Breslin screamed about the blood.  The restaurant at the end of the film is the ground floor of the apartment building used for the exterior shots in Friends.  

Mistakes:  When Zoe is eating Nick’s spaghetti in the restaurant kitchen, the bowl of spaghetti alternates between full and almost empty as the camera angles switch?  When Kate and Zoe are playing Monopoly, Catherine momentarily slips into her native British accent when she says, Park Place?  Cables and lighting are reflected in the heat lamp covers and other metallic surfaces in the kitchen?