Rating: 
Summary: A Visual, Emotional, and Culinary Feast
Review: MOSTLY MARTHA is a fine German film that delivers another gourmet kitchen drama to the field of food-driven stories. Martha is the gourmet Chef of the Lido, a spectacularly appointed restaurant somewhere in Germany. Martha (the beautiful and talented Martina Gedeck) is admired but has great difficulty relating to people on more than a profesional level. She is in therapy (a sterling portrayal of a therapist by August Zirner) to help her deal with her temper tantrums and find her inner self. Her ordered world is disrupted first by the Lido's addition of a hilariously warm Italian cook named Mario (Sergio Castellitto) and second by the sudden death of her sister, leaving her in charge of an independent 9 year old niece Lina (fully realized by young actress Maxime Foerste). Lina begins to recover the loss of her mother (and distaste for her guardian aunt) when Mario enters the home with food and tenderness that in the long run is healing for both Martha and Lina. Director Sandra Nettelbeck stirs these ingredients and the result is a film that touches the funny bone as well as the heart. The filming is tasty - especialy the kitchen scenes. This is a first class delctable main course, recommended by the Chef (in all those many guises!)
Rating:
Summary: Oh Martha
Review: This film was wonderful. It was a quiet and calm feature. The filming was done in such a way that I really felt as if I was standing in Martha's kitchen.
Martha is a slightly obsessive head chef and in her own right is quite happy with her life. Things get upset when her neice becomes her responsibility over night.
Martha meets her match in a pretentious Italian chef and she fights tooth and nail for her career.
This movie made me smile and soothed me. Often foreign films are full of snobbery but this movie was controlled in it's attitude and made for an excellent film.
Rating:
Summary: simply fantastic! never thought german movie so good!
Review: wonderfully scripted, acted, high standard rare movie gem. there's only one scene fell short: how could the new guy leave earlier than the chef and others except the pregnant employee? i am in the restaurant business, never saw any employee could dress up to call for the night while others are still doing the daily final cleaning works. this is one of the best movies that didn't draw my tears but still deeply touched and moved by the wonderful story and the performance of these characters.
Rating: 
Summary: I have to say, I LOVED this movie!
Review: I rented the movie without realizing that it was in German. The minute I put the movie in I thought there would be NO WAY that I would enjoy it. Wrong! I loved it and I plan on adding it to my DVD library. Excellent acting, excellent music, excellent movie.
Rating:
Summary: Just Finished Falling in Love ...
Review: With this movie!! I have never seen a German movie before, and I never thought the language was exactly romantic, but this film changed my mind. There was just enough dialog to help you understand the story, without senseless jabbering. The subtitles were subdued, so you weren't focused on the bottom of the screen. How could you be, when there are some absolutely beautiful actors!!Martina Gedeck is beautiful. Her character was so deep, and she portrayed her with charm and passion. She made me want to become a chef, but that quickly wore off. I particularly liked the scene where she hyperventilated over a messy kitchen. Sergio Castellitto, while not the handsomest of men, made me fall in love with him the moment Martha walked into the kitchen and he was swooning over Dean Martin's sultry tones. Any man who loves Dean Martin is worth a second look. His ability to break through the barriers of both Martha and Lina was stunning. I never thought soup was sensuous until he served it. And finally Maxime Foerste. While not the most amazing little girl I've seen, she has the ability to make a shouting match with an adult sound real, and not like a challenge to authority. She's able to play a sad and lonely little girl who comes to grips with her new life without making it a Hallmark moment. Life is not a Hallmark commercial. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants a stirred appetite, with a little romance thrown in.
Rating:
Summary: Sparse dialogue is better
Review: Why do such wonderful movies like this need english subtitles. It's a tragedy that American moviemakers are so dollar-drived that productions like this are almost always "foreign language" films. The diagogue and subtitiles are indeed sparse, but only because the cinematography and acting are exceptional to the same degree. This movie should not be viewed with more than 2 people present, or the mood will be spoiled.
Rating:
Summary: A touching delicious film who treats food as art
Review: I loved everything about this movie - the story, the great music and the actors - especially the Italian Sergio Castellitto with whom you cannot but fall in love. I also loved the tempting looking foods presented in this film and the great respect with which they are created. There is something very refined and exquisite about this film and about the treatment of cooking as any other form of art (including tolerance to the nature of its artists). Although the heroine, Martha seems at first like a "cold fish", she is moving and touching with her vulnerability and towards the end you find yourself weeping without restraint.
In the beginning of the movie Martha is not really a person you can easily relate to . She is very precise, very clean and orderly. I love the parts where Martha is getting prepared for work in the kitchen, she stands still and then shakes the clean white apron and ties it around her - this act is pictured as a ceremony preparing Martha physically and mentally to what she is about to do - her art work. Indeed Martha is considered a magician with foods. However, outside the kitchen it seems that Martha is not a person that moves at ease with the world around her. When her work is interrupted by human things or upset by a client (daring to return food to the kitchen), Martha has a hard time dealing with it and has to run to the large fridge to literally cool down.
Martha's clean sterile world is shattered when her sister dies and she needs to take care of her niece Lina. She does her best but finds it hard to relate to the young girl. Both of them are determined to find the child's father who lives in Italy. During this time of upheaval in Martha's life another chef is introduced to the kitchen to fill out for Martha. This is an Italian guy, talkative and warm, not very orderly and not very sterile (likes eating with his hands) who upsets Martha's life in the kitchen as well ("a mad person in my kitchen"? she asks the restaurant owner... "He's Italian"... is the answer). The kitchen is a place of harmony and control in Martha's world and now she feels her harmony is broken ("two chefs in one kitchen is like two drivers behind the wheel" Martha tells her psychologist) . The Italian chef seems to "see" inside Martha from the start and is not taken aback by her cold behaviour. Martha has no other way but to slowly surrender to the Italian charm.
Martha's relationship with Lina develops slowly throughout the movie and although the end is inevitable they succeed in moving the viewers to tears with the restrained gestures and dynamics between them.
Martha's tremendous efforts to control her "inner self" in order to become a good care taker for Lina, and her attraction to the Italian chef who is so opposite from her are endearing.
Rating:
Summary: Book me on a Airplane for Germany NOW!!!!
Review: This movie is sure to do wonders for tourism in Germany!! Movie is about Martha who is single and a chef in a Restaurant in Germany, she is the CHEF, NOT the owner. If you ever saw {Big Night} then you will appreciate this movie. It doesn't go into a lot of the food preparation as sayyyyy {Eat, Drink, Man Woman} but it is still a very good movie. It reminded me of {Baby Boom} with Diane Keaton. Martha's sister dies and she has to take care of her niece, Martha has some issues of her own, the niece doesn't eat Martha's cooking, and the Owner of the Restaurant is getting tired of Martha attitude in the kitchen. Martha's Sous Chef (layman term "assistant") is pregnant and will be going on maternity leave, the Owner hires this chef from Italy. NOTE!!! TWO COOKS IN A KITCHEN WILL NEVER WORK. Martha is trying to adjust her life for her niece, until she can get a hold of the nieces father, she has a cute neighbor downstairs that she is "somewhat" interested in, and she is having work-related conflicts with the new Chef. LOL This movie was great, my 12 year old daughter followed the sub-title very well and she even enjoyed it. There are some funny moments and some serious ones. Again I say this would be a safe pick for a weekend flick.... oh and the Scenery Hamburg was just gorgeous. (sp) Respectfully Reviewed
Rating:
Summary: Charming
Review: This story of Martha and her kitchen are a great edition to anyone's film collection. The addition of her deceased sisters child rocks Martha's world in many ways. I do not think enough of the reviews focus on this fragile relationship. Lina and Martha's relationship mirrors the relationship with the talented Italian chef. Both relationships are new and frightening to the lead.
This movie has charmed me and captured me. I m sure it will capture every person who see's it.
Rating:
Summary: Best Movie of the Year?
Review: I loved this film. Its a cute story, doesn't have all the typical American-movie shortcomings of utter predictability, guns, violence, beasts, and chase scenes. It is a loving story of heartbreak, love, friendship and growing together.
If you read/speak German it is a double treat because the sub-titles leave quitre a bit to be desired but the acting is so good the words are almost an added bonus.
| 
