BY: JERRY P

"No Reservations," the American remake of the German film "Mostly Martha," is a slicked-up, talkative film that lacks the subtlety of its original European model.

Having seen the German film “Mostly Martha” (2001) three times, I took my two daughters to see the new American version of the story, “No Reservations,” with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin, the young girl who was such a hit in “Little Miss Sunshine.” I was curious to see what the American version would be like and how the treatment would stack up against the German film, which I loved and found so amusing and charming.

Right off there is a big difference. In the German film, in the opening sequences in the psychologist’s office, the focus is on Martha's obsession with cooking at top-of-the-line eatery, not her lack of romantic relationships. We learn quickly this woman is serious, sober, a perfectionist, and a workaholic who probably needs to get a life. We also see Martha (Martina Gedeck) in her element, in the kitchen at the restaurant that she runs as if she is a Drill Sergeant on a mission. In the American version Kate (Zeta-Jones) is full of a lot more chatter, and so is her shrink, and the two of them have much more humorous byplay about her foibles. He asks the big question: “How long has it been since you have had a relationship with a man?” Kate, like Martha, is the BOSS in her kitchen.

But then fate intervenes in an unexpected way: Martha’s sister is killed in an automobile accident and she inherits her sister’s 8-year old daughter Lina, called Zoe in “No Reservations.” The distance from the beginning of the German film to this tragedy is relatively short, which makes the accident less shocking, not the blow to the stomach that it is in the American version. In ”No Reservations” the sudden switch to the death really deflates the audience, which has just gotten comfortable waiting for some more jokes and laughs. Both my daughters leaned over to me and said, “I thought you said this was a romantic comedy?” The reason it hits so hard is all that light-hearted chatter with the shrink in his office, and with the crew at the restaurant, prepared them to smile and laugh some more. The sudden death and the sudden reversal of tone onscreen brings a surprise the audience isn’t ready for. Too many people felt like it came out of left field. In “Mostly Martha” seems more integrated and the movie never loses its heading or pace.

I mentioned the chatter. The German film’s dialogue is spare and largely to the point. The dialogue is, I would guess, half of what it is in “No Reservations.” American filmmakers believe in chatter, even when it’s just noise, and that takes the place of relevant speech. Americans like chatter; they get nervous when there’s too much silence.

The German actress who plays Martha is an attractive woman, and she does a nice job playing the neurotically obsessed Martha, the über-chef, who is not a people person and must learn from scratch how to relate to a child. She receives some help from Mario, an Italian cook who is hired when she takes some time off after her sister’s death. She is horrified by Mario (Sergio Castellito) as he introduces levity and music into her kitchen - God forbid! At first she is reluctant to accept him at all, but when she starts bringing Lina to the restaurant, she notices he is very good with her. The music Mario likes to play is pop American music, like Dean Martin crooning in Italian. In contrast, Nick (Aaron Eckhart) loves opera and loves to sing it and engage in theatrics in the kitchen. Then there is Zeta-Jones playing Kate, a movie star who is more than attractive: she’s about a nine in the glamour department. She is in this movie to up the ante - to improve the chances of the movie to make some money. The pairing of her with Eckhart I thought was a bit dubious. He seems so rough-cut next to her feline grace. He struck me as over the top next to Sergio’s more delicate and charming turn as Mario the cheerful chef.

There is another scene that profiles a big difference in treatment. Lina is so grief-stricken over her mother’s death that she can’t eat and Martha doesn’t know what to do about it. Mario has taken note of the situation and one evening he sits down by the girl while he is eating some pasta that he has just prepared. He eats with enthusiasm and, when he leaves her, he hands her the dish. As he walks away he tells her, “Save me some.” And sure enough, she digs into the pasta. Martha sees that she is eating and is delighted. Eckhart’s handling of the scene is heavy-handed by comparison; he injects self-consciousness into the scene, and a sense of self-congratulations that he is so clever at manipulating the child. He is full of grand gestures, whereas Castellito gives the scene a light touch with barely a hint of egocentricity.

My daughters, God forgive them, won’t see a movie with subtitles, so there was no way I could get them to see “Mostly Martha.” “No Reservations” was the best I could do and at least the film follows the original screenplay by Sandra Nettelbeck, if not in dialogue or in incidents, although they do drop the fact that Lina’s father is alive and living in Italy. And I can’t say I hated the picture, for I enjoyed it up to point; it's just that I prefer the subtlety of the European model to the more slicked-up and talkative American version.

For Jerry Pfaffl, writing about movies is an act of love and exaltation. Once a week while growing up he and his brother were taken to the neigborhood theater by thier parents to see second-run movies. He remembers sitting in the dark and being utterly mesmerized by noir thrillers, technicolor musicals, Westerns, and Biblical epics. When he was a college student he discovered the wonder of foreign movies and how more daring subject matter was possible. When he was teaching at UNLV he founded CINEMA X, a film society devoted to the showing of contemporary experimental films. When he was working at Bookmans on Ina he was in charge of the Video and DVD department and his nametag read "The Movie Guy." In sum, movies have always been his passion.