Mostly Martha
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Movie Reviews of Mostly Martha
Movie Review: Wonderfully Enjoyable Film
Summary: 5 Stars
_Mostly Martha_ is a top-rate film: wonderful story, great acting, and a superb soundtrack. The story revolves around a reputable chef, Martha, and how her life changes when her sister tragically dies, and she must take care of her young niece, Lina. The two have many problems in the beginning: both are grieving the death, and both are being forced into an unknown situations. After failed babysitting attempts, Lina starts to come to the restaurant with Martha. With the help of another chef, Mario, and his wonderful food creations, Martha and Lina become closer (as do Mario and Martha...) Food plays a major role in this film, many scenes are shot in the kitchen, and still others are spent describing luscious recipes. The actors were superb in their roles, and really made the film. The characters of Martha and Lina developed nicely as the movie progressed, and Mario's role was comedic and genuine...A great performance by all!
Of special note: The soundtrack features the wonderful "Via con me" by Paolo Conte. You may find yourself humming/whistling it for days!
_Mostly Martha_ was a highly enjoyable film, and I recommend it for all epicureans, and anyone who enjoys a great story.
Movie Review: I loved this movie
Summary: 5 Stars
*****
This movie was ostensibly about food, but really about love. Martha is a very lonely woman living her life for her passion, which is cooking. Throughout the movie characters---from other professional chefs to her orphaned niece---come into her life and finally she begins to love. However, it is a subtle, thought-provoking movie, not a dramatic American movie where everything is blatant and laid-out for the viewer.
I think I fell in love with Sergio Castellitto who plays Mario, an Italian chef working with Martha. The movie is worth watching simply for his performance with Martha (Martina Gedeck), who is truly excellent as well.
I just watched this movie as a rental and I am going to order it, because it is the type of movie that can and should be watched again and again to discover the layers of meaning that are there.
If you are a viewer who enjoys food or cooking, or relationship dynamics that are subtle yet profound, this is a wonderful, timeless movie. It was in German, and I hated having to watch the dialgue via the subtitles so closely, but it was well worth it. Although complex, this movie was uplifting, not dark.
*****
Movie Review: Delicious!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is much, much more than another great food movie--although it's definitely got some wonderful food happening. What's impressive here is the directorial restraint--the audience is allowed to decide for themselves what Martha's background might have been to see her into adulthood so detached from people that her entire life has become her career. The kitchen is where Martha lives; it is her dominion. The food she produces (unlike her life) is flawless. Beyond the confines of the restaurant, things are random, uncontrollable; nothing coalesces the way her perfect recipes do.With the arrival of her orphaned niece into her life and a second (Italian) chef at the restaurant, life, in spite of Martha's best efforts, begins to leak in around the edges of her fiercely maintained control--of herself and of her kitchen. There are moments of great yet gentle humor and moments of confused pain as emotions begin to grow in Martha--visibly an alien experience.
This is a wise film, filled with insight and humor; the soundtrack is wonderful and the resolution is immensely satisfying.
Not to be missed. Most highly recommended.
Movie Review: Delicious!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to admit, I was reluctant to see "Mostly Martha" for personal reasons: I had read a description about the main character's having to deal with the death of her sister, and I had just buried my own sister. But I went anyway, and was richly rewarded. "Mostly Martha" was great!Martha is a control-freak chef. Everything has to be in order at all times. Thus you can imagine what happens when her rigid world is set on end by the sudden death of her sister and her having to take in her young motherless niece. It's a great study of how a woman must learn to unbend and grow in order to meet a situation.
Now, don't get me wrong from what I wrote in the first paragraph--this is NO weeper by any stretch of the imagination. Martha develops not only an interesting relationship with her niece, but with the new Italian upstart chef hired to work in her German restaurant. He's very happy-go-lucky, the complete opposite of our uptight heroine, and of course, you know what they say about opposites and attraction, don't you?
Savor "Mostly Martha" whenever the chance presents itself to you--you'll be deeply satisfied!
Movie Review: What an exquisite film .... Ach Du lieber, sehr gut!
Summary: 5 Stars
Actually I am more than surprised about the quality of this DVD since German films have not been on my list of priorities.
Martha is a, single, self centered, young, obsessive compulsive chef at a high class restaurant when she is saddled with her 9 year old niece when her sister dies in a car accident. The Italian father has been out of the picture for years now so Martha was thrust into immediate motherhood. Having diufficulty coping with herself and the world around her you can imagine what havoc was created by the intusion of this niece....
Martha had trouble coping, and after taking a steak to the table of an unhappy diner and driving a steak knife though the raw steak and the table, the owner decides to hire another chef to help her friend in the kitchen. WOW ... not only an intrusion in the home but also at work .... too much for Martha ...
What a great little movie loved the heroine and the Italian chef played by Sergio Castellitto was fabulous ...