If you’re in the mood for a romantic comedy where a career driven woman learns how to cope and settle down with a man she initially despises and a kid she has no idea how to raise, then you can do much, much worse than No Reservations. Bet you thought I was going to say something else there, and so did I. Fact of the matter is that No Reservations is perfectly harmless and while that may not be a ringing endorsement, its maybe the best you can say about a movie that shares the exact same plotline as numerous other films.



Catherine Zeta-Jones is perfectly well cast as Kate, a top-flight chef at a fancy shmancy Manhattan restaurant that lives and breathes her work from getting up at 5:30 to shop for the freshest fish to going down late after an evening of cooking. Kate’s obsessive compulsive cooking extends to preparing meals for her therapist (Bob Balaban) who’s constantly advising her to get a life. Life is forced upon Kate when her sister dies and she inherits the guardianship of her niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin). Then there’s the new sous chef Nick (Aaron Eckhart), who Kate initially thinks is out to get her job, but Nick’s laissez-faire approach to cooking wins Kate over, eventually.



The light-hearted trailer makes everything in the movie seem warm and fuzzy and fun, but not really. A lot of the story focuses on the dynamic between Kate and Zoe and how both deal with the loss of their family member, sister and mother. Still, a lot of the screenplay, including Zoe’s attempted pairing of Kate and Nick, honestly comes across as if it were borrowed from other, similar movies. The thing of it is, you don’t really care while watching it. It’s all in that heightened sense of film reality, where every waitress wants to be an actress, Manhattan is a magical place where nothing bad ever happens and everyone has a fabulous New York apartment that they couldn’t possibly afford in real life.



Bottom line though is that Zeta-Jones, Eckhart and Breslin make an engaging team. Eckhart, who usually excels at playing slime balls, makes for a magnetic and engaging leading man and he was easy chemistry with Zeta-Jones. Breslin doesn’t get short shorted either and can be either funny or heartbreaking depending on the scene. No Reservations is harmless and I have no problem with that. Bon Appétit.