When a tragedy leaves her as sole caretaker of her nine-year-old niece Zoe (Breslin), Kate’s well-ordered world cracks like an egg left too long to boil. After taking time off to help her niece settle in, she returns to work to find her kitchen beset by the worst kind of pest — a new sous-chef. Nick Palmer (Eckhart) is everything Kate is not. Spontaneous, relaxed, and exuberant, Nick revels in the joy of food preparation in an elemental way. Kate first sees Nick as a threat, then as an annoyance to be tolerated. It is when he helps her to reach Zoe in a way that has eluded her that she begins to see him as a connection to a host of feelings not found in the safety of her kitchen. As Nick and Zoe assume greater importance in Kate’s world, she is challenged to set aside her tried and true recipe for life in order to create something new and wonderful.
No Reservations is trying to fool you. From its cute posters, with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart standing back to back in their kitchen whites, smiling flirtatiously, to taglines like “Life Isn’t Always Made To Order” and “Something’s Cooking This Summer,” the good folks in publicity are fairly shouting “Hey! Romantic comedy, right over here!” It’s simply not so — romantic certainly, comic occasionally, but the overall tone here is dramatic. What else is one to think of a film centering on loss, displacement, inadequacy, and fear of intimacy? It’s not exactly date movie material on a par with When Harry Met Sally.
That being said, No Reservations is an entertaining film (based on the European hit Bella Martha) that relies enormously on metaphor to make its point. The performers are well cast and carry out their duties admirably (those familiar with Eckhart’s work as George in Erin Brockovich will easily see why he was chosen here), and the illusion of being in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant is well maintained (professional line chefs were hired to staff the film’s kitchen in service of this goal). But the focus here is on food, its preparation, and what it tells us about the characters and their development. Kate’s signature dish, quail with truffle sauce, is refined, delicate, and beautiful — it is appealing, but almost in an untouchable way. Nick, with his famous sea bass and earthy Italian dishes, is as bold and alluring as the opera he favors while cooking. Kate’s bewilderment at Zoe’s refusal of a plate of fish — cooked with the head still on and eyes staring — is as emblematic of her inability to connect with the child as is Nick’s empathy for her when he gives her a big bowl of spaghetti. Even areas of the kitchen illuminate the characters; it is into the cold and insulated walk in freezer that Kate goes when she requires respite from others, and it is into the same freezer she brings Nick when the line between work and romance becomes blurred. Not since The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover has a restaurant spoken so colorfully.
Those who approach No Reservations looking for something gooey and sweet
are more likely to be surprised than disappointed. There is enough sugar to
satisfy, but it will take a more sophisticated palette to appreciate the film’s
nuances. It’s a dark chocolate film in a milk chocolate wrapper. If
you can get past that first shock of bitterness, you will enjoy a richness
that you might otherwise have missed.
– Michael Lee
Directed by David Silverman
After Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie escape to Alaska, the evil head of the EPA (voiced by Albert Brooks) nudges the president toward a plan that will simply blow the town off the map. When Marge and the children learn of their beloved berg’s fate, they hightail it back to Springfield, leaving Homer in the pristine wilderness to wrestle with his conscience: How does he reconnect with his estranged family, and how does he save the town which he may not love, but is at the very least home to Moe’s Tavern?
After 18 years and a mind-boggling 400-plus episodes, America’s favorite yellow family has come to the big screen. Since the first animatics appeared on the Internet, The Simpsons Movie has been as eagerly anticipated as any release in recent memory. Simpsons fans have speculated how a theatrical format will enhance the cluelessness of Homer, the mischievousness of Bart, the fretting of Marge, the righteousness of Lisa, and the intrepidity of little Maggie. On the other hand, Simpson’s snobs — those of us who think the series reached its peak somewhere between seasons five and nine — have waited with bated breath to see whether the film will offer a return to the brilliant and subversive writing of earlier seasons or perpetuate the hair-brained, slapstick antics of the past few years. Fans will likely be satisfied; snobs, well, it could have been worse.
The writers assembled for The Simpsons Movie are essentially an “all-star” team that consists of talent that has been there since the series’ inception as well as icons such as Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, and Al Jean. There is no question this group knows their characters from their overbites to their poorly drawn shoes, and they know in precisely what types of situations the characters will be funny. And therein lies the rub: Veteran Simpson’s watchers will know that the characters have been funny in these situations because they have been so before.
The voice work in the film is absolutely stellar, as is the score (which includes The Simpsons' theme as performed by Green Day before toxic waste dissolves their concert barge and they sink Titanic style into Lake Springfield). But the real star of the film is the widescreen format, which allows us to appreciate Springfield in a new way. As we swoop into an angry, torch wielding mob and wend our way through it (a shot that would be unavailable on the small screen), we realize that every character is recognizable to us. The Simpsons' universe has become so huge that there is no need for background filler. We see the familiar (Apu, Principal Skinner, and Dr. Hibbert) and the obscure (Wendell, Princess Kashmir, and Ruth Powers), and we marvel at Matt Groening and what the guy who used to draw funny looking rabbits hath wrought.
How will The Simpsons Movie be judged? As a success by some, a disappointment
by others, and anti-climactic by many, no doubt. But perhaps it is best left
up to the characters themselves to describe it: While it is not, as Comic
Book Guy might declare, “Worst episode ever!” it is hardly, in
the words of Mr. Burns, “Exxxcellent!”
– Michael Lee
