Following in the steps of Raising Helen, No Reservations proves it just doesn’t work mixing grief, loneliness and – in this case – cooking. Based on the German film Mostly Martha this film tries its hardest to be cute and it almost succeeds thanks to a good cast, but not even the worthy performances of Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin can save this one.
Zeta-Jones stars as Kate, a master chef with her own kitchen and a type-A personality to boot, which has put quite the damper on her personal life. Kate’s sister is visiting with her daughter when tragedy strikes and her sister dies in a car accident leaving Kate the duties of caring for young Zoe played by Abigail Breslin whom most of you will remember from Little Miss Sunshine.
With all this going on in her life Kate is hit once again as her boss (Patricia Clarkson) hires a new chef to assist Kate in the kitchen as she gets used to her new lifestyle. Aaron Eckhart breathes life into the production as he plays Nick, but not even his free-wheeling attitude and highly likeable character can make this movie more mediocre. He is, however, the best thing about this movie and after a great turn in Thank You for Smoking he proves that he is definitely finding his groove as an actor, especially if you can find good things to say about a performance even if it is in a movie that ends up being this bad.
Director Scott Hicks is best known for his helming duties on the 1996 Oscar-winner Shine, but there is nothing Oscar worthy about this flick which has a hard time bouncing back and forth between scenes of grief and moments of romance. Strangely enough the two can’t be mixed all that well in a romantic-comedy, at least if you are going for light and airy. No matter how you slice it… in the end… Zoe’s mom is still dead.
