Catherine Zeta Jones plays a single perfectionist whose life is cooking.  When her sister dies in a car accident, leaving her young niece in her care, a domino effect forces her to open her life and experience life outside of her tight knit world.  This is the second time that I’ve gone into a film expecting it to be terrible and finding myself enjoying said film maybe a little to much. Take into consideration that I am a sucker for a good romantic comedy and you might want to judge this film for yourself, but I’m going to give you some reasons to consider why you should cut this corny but sweet film a break.

My first big fear was that this was going to be Raising Helen all over again. Lets put that thought to rest because its nothing like Raising Helen.
No Reservations is a well balanced film that includes romance, drama, and comedy without allowing any one element to over power the film. The writing of the film is somewhat genius in that the characters work well on a real time basis. There is almost a surreal quality to the way all the characters interact with one another so casually and so genuinely.

I was glad to see that Zeta Jones’ return to film has brought a more defined substance filled actress. There were no glorified body shots, no over exerting scenes that put her on display as just another sex symbol. Zeta Jones’ acting is magnified here and it works. There is an actual natural beauty to her when she isn’t trying to put herself on display.

Aaron Eckhart was decent in this film. He was more like a prop then anything else I think. Having had my head jammed in the culinary world for the past few months following Anthony Bourdain through his many adventures its was hard watching some of the scenes with Eckhart in the kitchen. I know it’s a film and you need to suspend disbelief but from what I’ve read about star restaurants there is no time to practice your opera singing, no time to sit around and pull Cosby philosophy on a kid who wouldn’t survive the rush of the kitchen. Still, Eckhart is sued in his scenes to heighten the films romance angle and even little Abigail Breslin seems an essential part of the flow of the film without falling into the trap of becoming a sappy non-talented child actor. The kid works and she works well.