Mostly Martha | Martina Gedeck, Sergio Castellitto

Mostly Martha | Martina Gedeck, Sergio Castellitto | Loved it...

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Mostly Martha

	Mostly Martha Martina Gedeck, Sergio Castellitto Paramount, 2003 average customer review:based on 98 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Mostly Martha is a rich addition to the recent banquet of movies about food. Martha (Martina Gedeck), the domineering chef at a fancy restaurant, has her rigid routine broken when her sister dies in a car wreck, leaving behind her 9-year-old daughter Lina (Maxime Foerste). Martha takes the girl in, but has no gift for maternal expression; she offers Lina food, but Lina refuses to eat. Meanwhile, her control over her kitchen is threatened when her boss hires a buoyant Italian named Mario (Sergio Castellitto) to assist, and Martha finds herself flailing in an effort to reestablish control of her life. While Mostly Martha may not hold many surprises, the writing, direction, and particularly the acting are as sumptuous and sensual as the cooking and eating. The relationship between Martha and Lina is portrayed with all its awkwardness and complications intact; the result is wonderfully affecting. --Bret Fetzer

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Tastes Delicious!

This movie is great! I'm a MS & HS German teacher and I was able to show this to my first year German students. Ties in nicely to curriculum involving food/cooking or just as an entertaining movie to show in the target language. It's completely school-appropriate, with the exception of two curse words in the English subtitles (which can easily be momentarily covered). A great price for a German-language, region 1 DVD!

Loved it...

German film with English subtitles. Story centered around Martha, a 30-something, unmarried chef who works at a high end restaurant in Hamburg - and is considered by her boss to be the 2nd best chef in the city (much to Martha's chagrin). Martha is obsessed with her cooking and is a perfectionist. She's high strung, compulsive, obsessive and more comfortable with her food and cooking than with people - she is cool and distant with most she interacts with. She takes criticism about her cooking personally and attacks customers who complain. Martha comes to care for her 8-year old niece (Lina) - who is suddenly orphaned from her Mother. Lina grieves and rebels against Martha who struggles to deal with the child. Lina disrupts the strict regime of Martha's workmanlike life and forces Martha to take stock in what's important in life. Lina forces an spontaneous, care-free Italian man into Martha's life and sparks fly from her repressed inner self.

If you love food and its preparation - all surrounded and wrapped in just-right-music and beautiful cinematography (of the kitchen, of the food, of the restaurant, of Hamburg streets, of her apartment) - this is a soothing, charming, warm all-human film. Loved it...

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The Best

This movie is one of the best that I have ever watched. I have seen it maybe 25 times... I don't seem to tire of it. It has almost everything you could want in a movie - tension, love, sweetness, hope, loss... everything.
The actors are marvelous - they are not perfect looking people - that makes it even better. The scenes with the therapist are wonderful. The small niece is very believable.

The American movie version RESERVATIONS with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart is awful compared to this original. There is no real feeling in it, nor does it make much sense. Please see this one! You will in no way be disappointed. I have recommended it to everyone I know!

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Oh so worthwhile...

This is a moving and wonderful film...lovely to look at...well done on all fronts! 5 Stars for Martha.

Mostly Martha

Beyond great! A true tour of the heart and a reminder that the sun rises - always. An absolute "upper'
I was lifted up by this film! There was so much unassuming joy scattered throughout this story. It was so hopeful in the face of the worst kind of loss; a message that there is light at the end of all of our dark tunnels. And a clear reminder that we are not in control. The whole script seemed a solid comment on the resilience of the spirit and the strength of the truest kind of love, that of a child.
It was without any offensive content, save one mild curse word and my 9 year old enjoyed it as much as my husband and I. Even where almost uncontrollable passion was represented, it certainly got the message across without going too far.... left something to one's imagination, which is always more fun. Less CAN be more.
Martina Gedeck (Martha) is a master at conveying her character's deepest thought and emotion through the smallest gesture and her colorful body language, she is a natural actress and natural beauty. Her role was perfectly cast.
Sergio Castellito (Mario)'s performance carries 1/2 the weight of this beautiful film so easily and unassumingly, but it was Mario's soulful eyes and open and uncorrupted manner that pushed me over the edge and made me love him.
It is one of the top 5 best "feel good" movies I have ever seen
Other movies that made me feel like this were MARTIAN CHILD with John Cusack and AUGUST RUSH.
I cannot finish without mentioning the incredible performance, by Maxime Foerste, who played the 8 year old girl, Lina, was heart wrenching and at the same time healing and filled with hope. I am a mother of three. This film plucked at those strings I so vehmently protect and made me remember what or who really matters and that it's best to show them - now.
I would recommend it to anyone... as soon as they can read!

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