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Review by Susan Granger
1 star out of 4
Talk about misleading advertising! This clumsy comedy fails on almost
all fronts, and here's why. Sarah Michelle Gellar, who plays TV's "Buffy
the Vampire Killer," and Sean Patrick Flannery, who plays TV's "Young
Indiana Jones," both need a truly stellar vehicle to make the crossover
from the small screen to movies - and this isn't it. She plays an
inexperienced chef and restaurant owner who, magically, is able to cook
her sensuous passion into glorious cuisine after she meets this man of
her dreams. This idea worked for Mexico's erotic, enchanting "Like Water
for Chocolate," but it falls like a soggy souffle here. According to the
contrived script by Judith Roberts, briskly but routinely directed by Mark
Tarlov, Gellar inherits a failing 70 year-old TriBeCa restaurant, the
Southern Cross, from her mother. Playwright Christopher Durang plays a
cab driver Cupid as he, magically, utilizes an elusive crab to engineer
a "cute" meeting between Gellar and Flannery in a Manhattan Farmer's Market.
Flannery's a self-absorbed retail executive in charge of opening a trendy
new restaurant called Jonathan's in Fifth Avenue's tony Henri Bendel,
and his temperamental French chef is giving him grief. Can you guess what
happens? Gellar's Crab Napoleon enchants him, but the standard ingredients
are all measured out: no surprises, no spice, no zest, no originality.
Only some stalwart supporting actors - Betty Buckley, Dylan Baker, Larry
Gilliard Jr., Patricia Clarkson - are trying the best they can. And,
if you've seen "You've Got Mail," you'll find the plot similarities
striking. Not that it's not pleasant. It is - but so bland that, if you
go, you'll soon crave something else. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1
to 10, "Simply Irresistible" is a quite resistible 3. Back to the kitchen
for something with more gusto.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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