Inferior Reproductions

No Reservations - 2.5/5

American audiences, so it is said, won't watch subtitles (unless of course it comes with Crouching Tiger style action). So Hollywood has the habit of remaking great foreign films into Americanised, sanitised and, quite frankly, inferior multiplex fodder. There's nothing new about this - famously The Magnificent Seven is a remake of Seven Samurai, but at least there some imagination went into its translation. More recently we have had Criminal - a practically shot for shot remake of Argentine Nine Queens, The Departed - a decent film, but still inferior to Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, Wicker Park - a faithful, if bland remake of L'Arpartement until they completely reverse the ending and come up with boring Hollywood pap, Vanilla Sky - a Tom Cruise vanity project that loses everything that made Open YUour Eyes so good and now No Reservations, a remake of German film Mostly Martha.

It keeps exactly the same plot - uptight and emotionally closed off chef with anger management issues (she's so closed off all she can tell her therapist are recipes). Her life is thrown into turmoil when her sister dies in a car crash and she unwillingly inherits custody of her niece. Simultaneously she has to cope with the arrival in her kitchen of a wildly, exuberant opera-loving chef. The American version keeps the same plot, but plays it more as a romantic comedy than the original emotional drama with strong touches. This means they also axe some of the story between the heroine (Kate here, Martha in the original) and her niece where she looks for more suitable guardians for her before realising that she is the most suited. This is a shame as it leaves out the most crucial parts of character development and the most affecting parts of the story. In fact in changing tone and emphasis it manages to lose not only the drama, but also most of the comedy and romance too - what we are left with is a curiously bland affair.

The main problem, apart from the cuts, is Catherine Zeta-Jones in the lead role. Whilst doubtless a talented actress, she never really manages to convey the emotional cut-off-ness required and is completely unconvincing in the later spontaneous moments, so we are left with only the vaguest sense of the character development which is kind of key to the whole thing.

Aaron Eckhart is one of those just below outright star actors who manage to make any film better just by being in them and he is watchable as ever here as the professional rival/romantic interest, but is rather miscast. In the original the character was an Italian, here they maintain hislove for all things Italian whilst Eckhart is most decidedly not Italian, requiring the insertion of a stunningly clumsy explanation.

The supporting cast do their best - Patricia Clarkson is wasted as the restaurant owner, whilst Bob Balaban adds a certain charm to the therapist. The main redeeming feature here is Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin as the bereaved child, proving her breakthrough hit was no one-off and acting her bigger name co-stars off the screen with a touchingly true portrayal. She is the one thing that makes this worth watching.

This takes all the best ingredients, but overcooks them into a dish which, like Zeta-Jones' performance is curiously bland and unaffecting. Save yourself the ticket price and rent the original instead.