Drama Made to Order

Movie Review
No Reservations
Directed by Scott Hicks

The management in the apartment where I am currently staying in Makati held a movie night-out event and invited the all the occupants. It was Friday night and since I got nothing else better to do, I figured that there's nothing wrong with it. Along with my other colleagues, we went to Rockwell to see the movie.

I thought that 'No Reservation' is a romantic comedy movie, but it seems that I was wrong (thanks to the movie poster which seems to indicate that it is indeed a romantic comedy). Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is a chef working in a well-known restaurant. She's proud of her cooking, and is quite a perfectionist. Her perfectionism, her inability to tolerate criticism to her cookings and her stern manner prompted the restaurant manager, Paula (Patricia Clarkson), to ask her to go to therapy. She goes, but doesn't seem to have a clue about what's wrong with her. Her life is turned upside down when one day her sister with her daughter, Zoe (Abigail Breslin) came to visit her and got into an accident along the way. Her sister dies, and Kate has to take care of Zoe. While adjusting to this new life, Paula brings in another chef, Nick (Aaron Eckhart) to assist her. Kate at first sees him as a usurper and a potential competitor.

Along the way I realized that this movie is not a romantic comedy at all, but more of a drama movie. There are serious issues like dealing with death of a close family member, adjusting to a life living together with a member of family previously living somewhere else, being a single parent and so on and so forth. These serious issues are presented nicely in the movie, not too heavy, but not light either. There are many good scenes in this movies when it comes to this issues. The romantic element of the story is introduced later on in the movie. The overall balance of these elements are done nicely in the movie, however, and the story moves along a brisk and pleasant pace, not too slow but not too fast either. Humor elements are sprinkled evenly along the way to keep the audience entertained and to lighten things up a bit. The cooking bit is quite colorful and also reminded me of Ratatouille (and it actually reminded me that I wanted to learn to cook).

In the performance aspect, Catherine Zeta-Jones is definitely in the spotlight. Her acting is spot on with the character Kate, and she managed to tune her undeniably charming charisma to the same level as that of a girl-next-door type (compare that with her roles in, say, The Mask of Zorro). The chemistry between her and Zoe (Abigail Breslin) is just right, and Aaron Eckhart also delivered an entertaining performance. Character developments are excellent, yet not over the top, and the spotlight is again on Zeta-Jones' character, Kate, and also a bit on Breslin's Zoe.

All in all, a nice little surprise of a movie, that has the right amount of everything without overdoing it. Go see it (preferably with a companion) and get a decent dinner after that and you'd have a perfect night.