Simply Irresistable
20th Century Fox
Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar
Good concept, okay film. Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as Amanda, a cook who isn't having much success at her small New York City restauraunt
until one day when she's suddenly granted the power to add her emotions into the mix while she's making the food for the few customers who
visit. Lovely idea, but I didn't find much to the film, except for a very funny pet crab.
Sarah Michelle Gellar, looking incredibly cute with red hair, meets Tom Bartlett(Sean Patrick Flannery). She's the chef of a small restauraunt,
he's the manager of a new high class restauraunt in the city. It's kind of a sweet version of "You've Got Mail", only with food. Anyways, you
know that the two are destined for one another, and they do have some chemistry, but at first he resists. He doesn't seem to want to allow himself
to fall for her, and that's fine. Of course it's only a matter of time before the two realize they're right for each other.Then, Tom begins to suspect things about Amanda and the "unusual" things that happen when they're together. Is it love, or just
indigestion? The film then comes to the part of the formula where the two must have an arguement and break up. As Tom begins to see Amanda's powers
with food, his initial reaction is a bit strange and a little random. It's his reaction that the film handles a little awkwardly, and a portion of the later part of the film seems a bit silly as a result. Although the film nicely ties in the feelings people have with eating great food and love with being in a "fog", but, for some reason,
I would have liked to have seen a different effect for the power Amanda's food has on people other than, well, a whole lot of fog onscreen, which seemed a bit silly and not terribly subtle.
Although the movie is a little obvious, it's the charm of Gellar that propells the movie forward through some of the slower points. She has a sweet
and lovely presence onscreen and it helps to keep us interested in the character. Which brings me to another point; Although this is a romantic film
the romance doesn't work terribly well. It's not the fault of the stars, it's the fault of the script. There's a few interesting
ideas in the plot, but the film hardly gives the couple any major dialogue between one another. There are some nice exchanges here and there, but they
didn't last long enough to keep me interested in if these two people would get together, and that's the problem. There isn't anything more going on than
the love story. What I did like was Gellar as a chef; she seems natural at
it and I would have just liked the story of her operating a restauraunt where people love the food that she puts her emotions into. She gets world
fame, people come from all over the world just to get a taste of the emotion in her food. But I'm getting off track here; rather than what I'd want to see,
let's get back to the rest of what I saw.
There's a nicely done final sequence where Gellar becomes the cook at Tom's restauraunt. The scene is made up of upper class folk and New York's major food critics, a tough
crowd, to say the least. As Amanda realizes that cooking for New York's elite isn't so easy, she goes through a few major emotions and takes the audience
along for the lows and highs as they enjoy her heavenly food.
"Simply Irresistable" brings an original plot to the table, but the dialogue between Gellar and Flannery just didn't strike me as fresh or interesting, and
the two didn't quite convince me as a screen couple. There is a sweetness and innocence about the film, though, that at least gives it a lot of charm.
Sarah Michelle Gellar's charming and lovely performance at Amanda carried the film for me, making it at least watchable throughout.
Definitely not a great film, but I will say that it has a few funny and charming moments. Come to see the movie, stay to see the performance of the pet crab, who will likely be Hollywood's next big star.
