Themes: Cooks and Chefs, Starting Over, Death of a Parent
Main Cast: Martina Gedeck, Sergio Castellitto, Maxime Foerste, August Zirner, Ulrich Thomsen
Release Year: 2001
Country: DE/IT/AT/CH
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Sandra Nettelbeck spins this gentle drama about how a child's presence can change the lives of the most shy and career-minded of adults. Martha (Martina Gedeck) is the chef of a popular Hamburg eatery who fusses and obsesses over each dish before it leaves the kitchen. The demands of her job and her natural shyness keep her from breaking out of her routine to meet new people. When her sister suddenly dies in a car accident, Martha adopts Lina, her eight-year-old niece. Martha's life soon completely changes -- not only must she adjust herself to new parental role, but she must help Lina deal with her grief over the loss of her mother. Martha gets unexpected help from Mario, Martha's hunky new sous chef, who is not only a whiz on the chopping block but knows sundry magic tricks and jokes to keep Lina's spirits afloat. Just as Martha starts to grow attached to the girl, however, the possibility of Lina returning to the custody of her father arises. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Review
Mostly Martha is mostly a formulaic movie characterized by an anonymous style and a paucity of orignal ideas. The German chef, Martha, is an uptight control freak; the Italian chef, Mario, is a charming and comparatively sensuous extrovert; the eight-year-old niece, Lina, forces Martha to get in touch with her maternal feelings; and the movie, unfortunately, seems to imply that Martha's workaholic tendencies are inherently unfeminine. On the positive side, Martina Gedeck does a fine job with her role and makes her character seem like more than just a cardboard cutout, even though the script sometimes treats her that way. Credit must be given to Gedeck and writer-director Sandra Nettelback for knowing when Martha should and should not be demonstrative, and thus knowing when it's best for Gedeck to underplay her role (e.g., an affecting scene in which Martha reacts to an important phone call at work). Unfortunately, this awareness doesn't extend to Mario, perhaps because there is little to his personality beyond his demonstrativeness; also, unfortunately, the film doesn't have enough positive traits to compensate for the conventional story. But if originality isn't your top priority and you want to see a little bit of romance, a lot of food, and some tearjerking drama, then you might find this movie satisfying. ~ Todd Kristel, All Movie Guide
Bella Martha (English: Mostly Martha) is a 2001 Germanromantic comedy drama film directed by Sandra Nettelbeck. The American movie No Reservations is heavily based on this. It is about a skilled chef in Hamburg, Germany. When her sister dies, she is left taking care of her niece, who gives her problems. She then has to face choices about the best solution to solve the problems set forth by her niece.
The film follows the events as they occur, but has occasional interludes where Martha is speaking with her therapist about cooking.
Martha Klein (Martina Gedeck) is a workaholic chef, single-mindedly obsessed with the perfection of her culinary creations. After her boss, restaurant-owner Frida, catches her arguing with a pair of customers over the quality of her cooking, Martha is ordered to see a therapist (August Zirner) to try to work out her control issues and poor interpersonal relationships. (Martha usually faces the stress she encounters at work by locking herself in the meatlocker until she calms down.) Meanwhile, Martha's sister, perhaps her only connection to a world outside of her job, dies in a car accident, leaving Martha in charge of her niece, the sullen and broody Lina (Maxime Foerste).
While trying to deal with her sister's death and the difficulty of raising her niece (who initially wants nothing more than to find her estranged Italian father), Martha's world is further turned upside down when Frida hires funloving and unorthodox Mario (Sergio Castellitto) as a sous-chef to replace the heavily pregnant Lea. Mario challenges Martha's defenses and bonds with Lina, who begins to accompany Martha to work. Martha begins to relax and open up to the possibility of a romantic relationship with Mario. Her progress is seemingly cut short when she forgets to pick Lina up from school while helping Lea get to the hospital to deliver her baby. While she reconciles with her niece after a heated argument, Lina's father arrives to take his daughter to Italy to live with his new wife and family. Martha is distraught and conflicted and cuts off her relationship with Mario and quits her job because she is tired of Frida's criticism.
She eventually reconciles with Mario and the two of them drive to Italy to get Lina. The closing scenes of the movie suggest that they marry, adopt Lina, and are opening up a restaurant of their own. Martha, who is still seeing her therapist, is apparently giving him cooking lessons, where he is amazed that she could tell the difference between the type of sugar he used and the type of sugar the recipe called for.
A feature film based on Mostly Martha, retitled No Reservations, was released in the United States in 2007. The film stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, who took classes at a Soho cooking school to prepare for the part. Aaron Eckhart takes on the role of Mario, and brings a modern, Americanised attitude.
Notes
^ Frank Glaubrecht was hired by producers to dub over Castellitto's voice.
