Mostly Martha

It's a nice german film. If you know of the Catherine Zeta Jones starrer "No Reservations", you know Mostly Martha already!

NR is an almost scene by scene copy of MM, but it fails to impress you the way MM does, although the latter was made almost 20 years before. The earnestness of Martha is just not conveyed by Jones.

For those who have no ideaabout the film:

It's the story of an almost-obsessed-by-food-chef- Martha, whose life though centered around her job as a chef, lacks passion even for the food she cooks.
Which is why, cooking for her is not just a matter of the senses, but more so of precisions (well she is german, could've been swiss as well). So a particular dish will taste a particular way after having been cooked for a particular amount of time.
She has no social life apart from her shrink visits.
She is suddenly left in charge, of her sister's young daughter, when her sister dies in a motor accident.
The coming together of the aunt and niece, the emotional upsets, the arrival of a new sous chef, the love that Martha discovers she is capable of feeling- both with the niece and predictably with the new italian sous chef- all of this is very subtly and undramatically portrayed. There are not many hysterically emotional scenes- neither when the niece's father comes to pick her up nor when Martha goes to get her back.

It's perfect for a sunday watch!