Review: No Reservations

As I continue to get caught up on movies, I attended an afternoon matinee of this little confection today. In this film (based on a German film called "Mostly Martha"), Catherine Zeta-Jones plays an executive chef named Kate, a woman with seemingly not much else in her life beyond her job in a restaurant kitchen. In the kitchen, she is totally in control - outside of work, well, 'nuff said. Her life takes a sudden turn with the death of her sister; the accident gives her custody of her young niece (another charming performance by Abigail Breslin). And to add to her chaos, a new sous chef arrives in the person of hotty Aaron Eckhart. If you can't predict the path this film will take, well, you haven't been to a movie or read a book in the past 100 years.

Still, if you go into it with no expectations beyond a light romantic comedy(which I did), you're in for an enjoyable two hours. I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between the two leads, but both give pleasant performances. There are several touching moments as Kate and Zoe grow closer, and Eckhart is always nice to look at. Yes, it's a chick flick, but an innocuous one, one that requires little of its audience.