No reservations, 2007

No reservations, 2007
Director: Scott Hicks
Cast: Catherine Zeta Jones, Aaron Eckhart, Abigail Breslin



Stage: Home theatre

No reservations in short: A master chef, Kate, lives her life like she runs the kitchen at upscale 22 Bleecker Restaurant in Manhattan--with a no-nonsense intensity that both captivates and intimidates everyone around her. With breathtaking precision, she powers through each hectic shift, coordinating hundreds of meals, preparing delicate sauces, seasoning and simmering each dish to absolute perfection.

Preps: Mmmm, none in perticular. Zeta as chef? Need to see this urgently. Always wanted to be one. Chef, that is.


Reality: Hm. The world of chef is a tuff one. I wanted to (and I still do) have a restaurant. I have always wanted to have one. Always drull with movies where they cook. One of my best ones is Julie and Julia. Or see maybe also The soul kitchen. Superb. Anyhow, wherever parsley is being cut and beef or chicken is put on stew or on butter, here I am. I am bought.

In this case, a cute romantic rival story between two chefs, mixed alltogether within a family drama. Taking care of a small child or being a chef? A hard decision. Meeting your spouse inbetween? well, would love to see this turn out happily. Because you need to decide at some point what to do. OK, if you are a high flyer and are in the middle of the lauch of your career, and you get a new kid - that's a problem. Or a challenge, put it as you want it. The kid hates your guts, you are in the middle of mourning for your relative and his kid doesn't want you to play the mother. This is the world of Zeta Jones right when she believes she's on the breakthrough of her career. A good plot story and an interesting follow through in what is she going to do.

Spiced with exotic cooking, filled with taste and lust. For a soul that likes to cook the way I do, a beautiful piece to see. Nothing in perticular amazing about the cast, the scenery, dialogues. But I enjoyed the romantic dwelling in the kitchen and it definitely made me hungry. A piece I will love to see again, although I don't find it any more than average.


My personal rating: 5,0 (Zeta goes into this macho feminine chef pose I adore. And she cooks in the totally male world, and owns him. On the other side, it's pretty clear. A good career or a strong family. Never both at the same time.
No reservations on IMDB

Julie and Julia, 2009

Julie & Julia, 2009
Director: Nora Ephron
Cast: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Chris Messina

Stage: Home theatre


Julie and Julia in short: In 1949, Julia Child is in Paris, the wife of a diplomat, wondering how to spend her days. She tries hat making, bridge, and then cooking lessons at Cordon Bleu. There she discovers her passion. In 2002, Julie Powell, about to turn 30 and underemployed with an unpublished novel, decides to cook her way through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in a year and to blog about it. We go back and forth between these stories of two women learning to cook and finding success. Sympathetic, loving husbands support them both, and friendships, too, add zest.


Preps: I have seen this piece at the local theatre one year ago and I urged to see it again as this movie inspired my blog anyway :)


Reality: I am overwhelmed again. Living in France in this matter is something extremely cool and I love the insight the movie gives me. And also exposes the problem the women (housewifes) had when living in a way that only the guy gets to go to work. In much sense, a very realistic picture of the historical France and the way to go active.

On the other hand, present tense shows Amy Adams in a role of a different housewife, with a somehow terrible job (or she is terrible at performing it), that is inlove with cooking. So cooking after a bible of cooking in her opinion, gives her the chance to share experience via net - through a blog. Blogging each day seems a burden after a while, and obsession with cooking drives her friends and boyfriend crazy(as a difference towards french Julia, who is praised by her cooking success all along the way).

It is a genious way to make a cookbook work, in my opinion. Every housewife or at least everyone that cooks has an enormous amount of cooking books, recipes, and there is no way that you are going to cook the book if you don't follow a recipe like it is shown in the movie. To blog about it, makes it even more special. Following Julie in the kitchen seems provocative and revolves weaknesses of a person, wanting her expertize to be acknowledge by a deeper audience, showing respect to all the great chefs along the cooking way. In some sense, truly inspiring piece that I wish to see every now and then. And of course follow the steps shown in the movie.

No deeper meaning further than the points mentioned above. To have a project to keep you alive and finishing it in a certain amount of time, seems very modern and the way we need to keep our lives, if we decide not to sleep after we start working in business environment.


My personal rating: 9,0 (I am a huge fan of cooking and this is something so inspiring I would like to do it myself)
Julie and Julia on IMDB