German filmmaker Sandra Nettelbeck’s debut feature MOSTLY MARTHA is a veritable international hit, substantiated by spawning a Hollywood remake NO RESERVATIONS (2007), a star vehicle for Catherine Zeta-Jone. As an exemplary “foodie romance flick”, the film is toothsome yet never cloying, its love story feels earned rather than forced, and Nettelbeck nimbly avails herself of the contrasting cultural/culinary distinctions between Germany and Italy to canalize the opening-up rite of passage our protagonist Martha (Gedeck).
Martha is a fussy and a tad stuck-up chef of a restaurant in Hamburg, whose hardened, territorial, defensive carriage impedes her having a more gregarious social life, still single, the job is everything to her. But a bereavement shatters the status quo and detracts her from her monomania, after her sister perished in a car accident, as the next of kin, she becomes the interim guardian of her school-age niece Lina (Forest), before the latter can be taken by her Italian father, who has been long out of the picture and married and lived somewhere in Italy, in the meantime the two have to mark time together, only a post-traumatic Lina proves to be a hard nut to crack for Martha, who has to assume the role of a surrogate mother with much pains.
Concurrently, in her kitchen, her absolute sovereignty is challenged by the new sous-chef, the Italian epicure Mario (Castellitto), whose devil-may-care geniality squarely counter to Martha’s perfectionist vein, but as the tried-and-tested rule of opposites attract attests, their foe-to-friend-to-lover trajectory is par for the course and naturally integrated with Martha and Lina’s on-off concord.
A saxophone-profuse soundtrack is a go-to if trite choice to accompany a burgeoning romance takes place in a less palatable locality, even if we muster enough tea and sympathy, Lina’s petulance and rebellion still takes much effort to stomach, and Castellitto is an enchanting foil though Mario’s sanguine nature is wanting in variation as a full-blooded character, which might be partially due to the fact that Gedeck is holding court from stem to stern with her magnificent malleability and emotive precision, especially her poised beauty is entrancingly soothing and distancing at once, Martha is almost a meta-representation of all the virtues one can glean from an emancipated modern woman, except for a funny bone, which luckily can be complemented by her significant other, and more than anything, it is pretty bracing that MOSTLY MARTHA’s gratifying coda doesn’t slump to the same saccharine substrate like many other of its ilk.
referential entries: Nora Ephron’s JULIE & JULIA (2009, 7.7/10); Stanley Tucci’s BIG NIGHT (1996, 7.1/10); Silvio Soldini’s BREAD AND TULIPS (2000, 7.2/10).
暖暖的,好滋味~
我喜欢这色调!画面美!音乐也不错。故事一般~但是那个小loli很萌啊
温馨精致的小品
这片我看过的啊,厨师是个好工作啊
英语课看的,居然很喜欢,女主很美。
看Sergio Castellitto版的,果然没让我失望^^里面的心理医生很有趣,美味这东西,还是大家一起吃才更好~~
Definitely a notch above the Hollywood remake "No reservations". A comparison: http://movie.douban.com/review/5288384/
说到爱情轻喜剧,还是美版味正,说到知识控,德版完全百科啊~~
与其说是美味关系,倒不如说是借美食来改善亲情和爱情的关系。紧绷绷的德国女郎和热辣辣的意大利男子一邂逅,从剑拔弩张到相互欣赏,需要紧急事件交心,但仍靠食物调情。形散神不散,漫不经心地堆积情感,倒是看不到好莱坞版的雕琢痕迹,但同时恐怕节奏感欠奉。
真人版的料理鼠王,美食汇演啊。。。
美版基本照着这个拍的,情节顺序和主要角色设置一样,但没有小女孩的父亲一角,美版的女孩更美更甜一些,还把心理医生换成可爱小老头,很好的避免了和男主在外貌上的类同,德版心理医生太好看,都快站他和女主的cp了,瑕疵有故事转折上不够充分到位,有跳跃感,女主的自我心理救赎和打开心扉来的有些突然。
这个男人,很美味~
太难超越的经典!人生真精彩!!和心爱的人开一家餐厅,是每个吃货的终极人生目标吧!
有生活的味道
多好的开场,我说那些美好的食物
女主角完全对准了我的弱点来的,漂亮和符合我审美到我都傻了。
泽塔的不如这个,内容是一样的....
太棒了!原来这片子就是[No Reservations]的原版!之前知道这个片子但没对上号,原版爱情戏份不多,更多围绕女主角,好久没看到这么嗲的chick flick了!看来我应该多找找陌生语言的rom com(但是怎么找啊?!你们推荐下!)
德国人的刻板规律vs.意大利人的热情散漫
演员我都不认识,感觉都不是很有名,但是电影却让人眼前一亮。无论是里面的美味料理,还是女主和侄女之间的关系都拍的不错。特别是里面女主蒙着眼睛猜男主喂的是什么,那段戏太经典了,就好像德芙巧克力的广告。对于好莱坞的翻拍我表示鄙视,也没打算看,又不是年代很久远的东西,吃别人嚼过的很没劲。