Mostly Martha

Whoo-hoo! April's first foriegn film review!

Basic plot: Martha is a neurotic, controlling French (style, not citizenship) chef. On their way to visit her, her sister and niece are in a fatal car accident. Martha ends up taking care of Lina, her niece, while she searches for Lina's Italian absentee father. To pick up the slack, Martha's boss hires Mario, a relaxed, sensual Italian (style and citizenship) chef. Sparks fly in all sort of directions and in more ways than one.

So, so hilarious. Whoever that German director is, he does an excellent job of balancing the sorrow of grief with adult (read: grown-up, not porno) romance. Martha's inability to relate to anyone except through food is as amusing as it is pathetic. Her scenes with her therapist are comedic gems, and there is one highly sexy scene with Martha, Mario, and some soup/sauce (I'm not sure which).

As a clarification, let me remind you that I'm not suggesting that this film is for everyone. Some people, for example, cannot deal with sub-titles. Others, for whatever misguided reasons, cannot deal with anything outside of the Hollywood mainstream. However, if you do not fall into either of the above categories, than this is definetly the film for you. It's nice to know that a film can be funny with resorting to slapstick, sex, gross-out humour or sad with being dark. Go Germans!