SIMPLE IRRESISTIBLE A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
Have you ever been so head over heels in love that you felt like you were floating? That happens, quite literally, to Amanda and Tom, played with great romantic chemistry by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Sean Patrick Flanery, in director Mark Tarlov's romantic fairy tale, SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE. In an age of ironic movie titles, it is refreshing to have one that is completely true.
Although Gellar comes most recently from a teen movie background, SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE is unabashedly adult, even its very mild PG-13 rating means that it would be fine for kids younger than teenagers. It's also a feel-good movie that isn't ashamed of emphasizing the upbeat and optimistic part of our souls. There isn't a dysfunctional family in sight, and the characters are the sort of nice people that you'd like to get to know better.
The story starts off with shades of YOU'VE GOT MAIL as Amanda's New York City restaurant, The Southern Cross, is about to go bankrupt due to rising rents and dwindling clientele. The Southern Cross is a lowbrow place that's been in Amanda's family for 70 years. The waitresses lug big pitchers of iced tea, and the plates don't match.
Across town, Tom manages an upscale department store that is spending 4 million dollars just to open a small, four star restaurant within it. Tom's currently dating a Julia Roberts lookalike who has perfect skin and hair and knows it.
One day, Tom happens by Amanda's establishment with Miss Million Dollar Looks in tow. Through a bit of almost accidental magic, Amanda instantly learns to cook meals that are so irresistible that they send people into ecstasy. A few bites and Tom can hardly control himself, especially after he tastes her pièce de résistance, the dessert. ("I love desert," she says. "It's the whole point of the meal.") He falls hard for Amanda, which pleases her no end.
Being on different ends of the economic scale, Tom and Amanda don't do much about their infatuation at first. The movie's most enchanting scene occurs in their next meeting after that first meal. In his restaurant, currently under construction, she looks at him, and, with a come-hither look, she motions him over with her index finger. Soon they are dancing to romantic, big band music like in an old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie. They don't understand what is happening to them (joint hallucination perhaps?), but they enjoy it.
The movie has a strong supporting cast that enriches the story. HIGH ART's Patricia Clarkson plays Tom's humorous and love-starved assistant. HAPPINESS's Dylan Baker plays Tom's stiff boss and the owner of the lavish, family department store. And as Amanda's assistant cook and love advisor, Larry Gilliard, Jr. shares the script's best comedic lines with Clarkson.
Similar to LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE in its love of food and its association of eating with loving, SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE is not a movie you should attempt to watch on an empty stomach lest you get such a ravishing hunger for great food that you are forced to leave the theater. And whatever you do, don't you dare let your spouse see it alone. The story puts such a romantic trance on the audience that your other half is liable to fall in love with the stranger in the next seat.
SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE runs a breezy 1:35. It is rated PG-13 for brief sexual references and would be fine for any kid old enough to be interested in romance.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: www.InternetReviews.com
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