Even though I actually like Catherine Zeta-Jones*

I'm a bit disturbed by the ads for her new movie, No Reservations. Let's take a look:

Why, it's Kate, a successful professional woman, devoted to her career, who apparently has no love in her life and no real human connections! In the ads, this part of her life is represented by her response to a customer who complains that his steak isn't rare enough: she stalks out of the kitchen, skewers a raw steak to his table with a great big knife (phallus?), and says, "That rare enough for you?" 

She's apparently redeemed, however, by caring for a child (Abigail Breslin, whom I loved in Little Miss Sunshine - and on a total tangent, a quick glance through her pictures at IMDB reveals very little of the dressing up of little girls as 21-going-on-hooker that seems all too common these days; I especially like the one with the stuffed monkey. Although with this movie and Raising Helen she may have cornered the wistful-orphan-who-teaches-women-how-to-love shtick). Kate's also redeemed, perhaps more importantly, by finding a guy who appears to humanize her and gently lead her through this transition to the true womanliness of motherly devotion to others (said guy is played by Aaron Eckhart, whom I also quite like, except that in these ads he appears to possess two expressions: smug and patronizing).

So, to all you single career women out there: it's not too late! you, too, can find love and end up as part of the traditional white heterosexual nuclear family (okay, only one child, no dog. Details). And you won't even have to work at it - life will deposit the means on your doorstep. Even if you've spent all this (misdirected) energy on other things, and even if you don't take the conventional path to get there - as long as you end up there in the end, that's all that matters.

[Obligatory disclaimer: the above is based on the ads I've seen in my recent forays into tv-land. Who the hell knows if the actual movie reads this way. Hell, I may even go see it sometime.]

*who I think was wonderful in Traffic: "Get out of the car and shoot him in the head!" My one criticism: she appears to be three months younger than me. Why don't I look like that?? And why do I still want to think of her as older than I am?

Comments

[Anastasia]

no reservations is a remake of mostly martha, which I suspect is a much better movie. what bugs me, actually, is the characterization of the protagonist. catherine zeta jones comes across in the ads like this emasculating harpy who can't connect with human beings. the woman in the original is precise, exacting, controlled because she has to be in order to do her job. who she is, what she does, this is all mixed up. it's really a great movie. Haven't seen no reservations, either, but from the trailer...yuck. They've turned the main character into something really icky as far as I can tell.

[Jeannette]

Not only that! But it looks like a really sappy remake of what it already a really fun German movie "Mostly Martha"!! DON'T watch No Reservations, watch the German one!!! It's touching, funny, and delightful.

[Jeannette]

Ha, guess I posted at the same time as Anastasia, and she said it better.

Watch "Mostly Martha".

[hypatia cade]

I'm actually slightly more disturbed because the plot, as advertised, seems to be the same as the movie Mostly Martha (bella martha) a foreign film released about 5 years ago that is slow, funny, and sweet.

Your summary of the movie, it plays close to the original is exactly spot on, even if it's only based on the ads.

[dr four eyes]

The basic narrative--career-focused, love-lacking woman humanized by sudden acquisition of an adorable orphan and new-found love of a man--predates "Mostly Martha" (which I haven't seen), for sure.

As I was reading your description, I immediately thought of Diane Keaton in "Baby Boom" (1987). I'm sure the narrative is older than that, though I'm not enough of a film buff to know which movies to point to.

It is an insidious narrative.

[Horace]

here's the thing. Mostly Martha is a delightful little film, with the exact same sexist premise, with a bit of national stereotype thrown in: Martha's a cold German, and the savior chef is Italian (They're all passionate, those Italians). So it's kinda sexist and racist.

[meg]

What Horace said, minus "delightful." I may be the only person on earth who hated *Mostly Martha*, precisely because of the sexist and nationalist overtones.

[Anastasia]

okay fair enough on the sexist and nationalist bit with mostly martha. but it isn't played quite so broadly as it looks in no reservations.

[Q]

meg, you're not the only person who disliked "Mostly Martha." I wrote an essay on it for a German class talking about how sexist it was, and the professor accused me of reading too much into the film. It certainly didn't merit a remake.

[Sisyphus]

Hunh --- reminds me of "Must Love Dogs" which is all about demonizing devorcees and making women-not-attached-to-men seem ridiculous. My friend walked out of that one partway through, so I can't tell you if it got better. But, as she said, why can't women have and like their jobs?

[meg]

And can I just say, *Waitress* -- WTF?!? Having a baby will make everything in your life perfect? Urp to that.