Mostly Martha and No Reservations
Seeing as, when I sat down to watch 'No Reservations' with my mother (we don't get together much) I was biased because she's been making me watch 'Mostly Martha' with her for years, I was pleasantly surprised. I like both versions of the same story, for different reasons.
Mostly Martha is German, and most of the movie is tinged with that inescapable, depressing gray, but that makes the cute, funny bits all the more enjoyable, like sudden sunspots in a dark forest. Then again, I'm biased, as I saw it first and associate it with my mother and good food, but I would reccomend it to anyone, even if you don't like foreign films. (Just for the record, I prefer the music montages in Mostly Martha than the ones in No Reservations, because the use of the song 'Via Con Me' is not handled very well in No Reservations, wheras in Mostly Martha, it's one of my favorite scenes.)
No Reservations is the American version of Mostly Martha, and they got the gist but not the mood. Yes, there are bits that made me cry (mostly because whenever I see a coffin in a movie these days I break down) and yes, Abigail Breslin (who starred in the wonderful Definatley, Maybe) is one of the most adorable children on the planet, but something of the original is lost in the speedy NYC adaption. Both Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart are flawlessly sexual, but is that the point of the movie? The ending is a little too cutesy for my taste, too. I mean, they completely dumped the plot of Zoe/Lina's father, and so the plot of Martha realizing she needs Lina after all is lost as well, but as Lina is Zoe in No Reservations, and younger, that could be why.
I reccomend both to you all, and, as always, I mean no offense to the actors mentioned above, Germans, Americans, or truffle-hunters.
Mostly Martha is German, and most of the movie is tinged with that inescapable, depressing gray, but that makes the cute, funny bits all the more enjoyable, like sudden sunspots in a dark forest. Then again, I'm biased, as I saw it first and associate it with my mother and good food, but I would reccomend it to anyone, even if you don't like foreign films. (Just for the record, I prefer the music montages in Mostly Martha than the ones in No Reservations, because the use of the song 'Via Con Me' is not handled very well in No Reservations, wheras in Mostly Martha, it's one of my favorite scenes.)
No Reservations is the American version of Mostly Martha, and they got the gist but not the mood. Yes, there are bits that made me cry (mostly because whenever I see a coffin in a movie these days I break down) and yes, Abigail Breslin (who starred in the wonderful Definatley, Maybe) is one of the most adorable children on the planet, but something of the original is lost in the speedy NYC adaption. Both Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart are flawlessly sexual, but is that the point of the movie? The ending is a little too cutesy for my taste, too. I mean, they completely dumped the plot of Zoe/Lina's father, and so the plot of Martha realizing she needs Lina after all is lost as well, but as Lina is Zoe in No Reservations, and younger, that could be why.
I reccomend both to you all, and, as always, I mean no offense to the actors mentioned above, Germans, Americans, or truffle-hunters.