No Reservations

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

By far the best thing about it is Zeta-Jones.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The romance, which commences rather gradually, is tender, but not graphic. Humor is interspersed throughout, but there also is sadness, handled seriously. Actually, it is as much a family saga as it is a romantic comedy.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

See it after you've eaten dinner. And don't see if you've recently been to "Ratatouille."

ReelViews James Berardinelli

No Reservations may not be a modern day classic but, despite the relatively small budget, it has more heart than nearly anything currently playing in multiplexes.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Agreeably prepared and attractively presented, this remake of the tasty 2001 German feature "Mostly Martha" bears too many earmarks of Hollywood packaging and emotional button-pushing, but doesn't go far wrong by closely sticking to the original's smart story construction.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

The cynic would like to write this off as empty grown-up hooey, "Baby Boom" without an ounce of bang. But you can't do it, because the thing's so charming and frothy and delightful and sentimental and beautifully shot and well-acted and sincere that it takes a good couple of hours before you start craving real nourishment.

The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz

The emotional details of Kate, Nick and Zoe’s journey are surprising, honest and life-size, and the film’s determination to present their predicament sympathetically, without appealing to retrograde ideals of femininity and motherhood, makes it notable, and in some ways unique.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

A passable romantic dish, a good-looking, old-fashioned date movie set in an idealized Greenwich Village, evocative of the better Woody Allen films.

TV Guide Ken Fox

It's handsomely shot by Stuart Dryburgh and nicely acted, and if it tastes a bit bland, you'll soon forget that, along with just about everything else about it.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The movie's pleasant and light, though, and its emotional crises are the crust on an acceptably edible crème brulee.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

It takes its plot from the 2001 German film about a workaholic chef, dumbing down the original slightly and inserting a couple of phony crises. You're spared not only subtitles but subtlety.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Fails to offer a single moment you don't see coming but its cast is appealing, and it provides a welcome respite from young wizards, talking robots that turn into trucks and other staples of this long, hot, boy-focused summer.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Alas, not even Eckhart and Breslin can get Zeta-Jones to simmer.

Film Threat Stina Chyn

I generally wince at the thought of a foreign film receiving a Hollywood do-over, but No Reservations satisfactorily Americanizes its German predecessor by taking an originally more serious story and adding to it a lighter, more comedic tone.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's fun to see the glamorous actress turn down her movie-star flame, but it's a pity she's stuck with so many trite gestures on Kate's journey to fulfillment.

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

It's plain old lousy timing, this chronicle of a dedicated, exacting chef being released in the wake of the kitchen-centered "Ratatouille" and "Waitress." Alongside those two charmers, which beautifully demonstrate the transformative powers of food and love, No Reservations is strictly cordon blah.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The film feels miscast. Neither Zeta-Jones nor Eckhart look the least bit comfortable in a restaurant kitchen. More troubling, they look downright uncomfortable with each other.

Slate Dana Stevens

Five years from now, this bland and forgettable throwaway will be remembered only for Breslin, who will by then be a poised and gifted 16-year-old actress.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

No Reservations succeeds as well as it does (kinda sorta) by virtue of Zeta-Jones' performance.

Washington Post Hank Stuever

There's already a crazy behind-the-scenes restaurant movie out this summer, and it's got a better story, and it's a cartoon, and it stars a rat.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

After seeing No Reservations you'll be hungry for a really top-flight meal. And, to go with it, a better film.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is focused on two kinds of chemistry: of the kitchen, and of the heart. The kitchen works better.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

The kitchen action here is pretty diverting -- everybody involved seems to have boned up on their Bourdain and Buford, and having done so, sanitized what they've gleaned with Hollywood polish.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Too bad director Scott Hicks and screenwriter Carol Fuchs didn't look more closely at their source material, a 2001 German film called Mostly Martha. That film used the same basic premise but injected real conflict into the mix, in ways sexual, culinary, even ethnic. That film tried to do something, even while it was entertaining us.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Even the food - usually the centerpiece of a restaurant movie - is oddly uninspired. Despite Zeta-Jones' best efforts, barely a moment here feels organic, or fresh.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A soufflé of a romantic and family comedy that stubbornly refuses to rise.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

The romance is boring. Everything is blandly good-looking. The emotional beats are so programmed, you can predict the entrance of every single note of the Philip Glass dirge of a score. And the title means nothing beyond its double-entendre.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

No Reservations is pretty much the dramatic equivalent of a burger and fries, however pretty the presentation.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

The movie feels stubbornly, resolutely disingenuous and one-dimensional. Everything in it isdesigned to make you feel better, so why does it feel artificial and palliative in that really depressing way?

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Sometimes movies make sense in a logical way; sometimes they make only emotional sense. No Reservations makes no damned sense at all.

Empire Angie Errigo

It’s sufficiently well done to qualify as cute, quite the thing for a girlie outing with grub after, but it’s utterly phoney baloney.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

I don't believe in fixing things that aren't broken. Sandra Nettelbeck's wholly accessible "Mostly Martha" (2001) is one of the most delightful comedies of recent years, so the idea of a remake with English instead of German dialogue is already pretty dubious, an insult to the capacities of both audiences and the original filmmakers.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It takes a winning recipe and adds some distinctly Hollywood flavors...The result is a botched job.