Line #14 Film/NoReservations2007


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ekqfrsf0dz0qey1f9zhuzfsmxvr.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:[[{{Tagline}} Life isn't always made to order.]]]]
3
4	->''"I wish there was a cookbook for life, you know? With recipes telling us exactly what to do."''
5	-->-- '''Kate'''
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7	''No Reservations'' is a 2007 American [[Main/RomanticComedy romantic]] {{dramedy}} directed by Creator/ScottHicks that has a top chef (Creator/CatherineZetaJones) taking in her niece (Creator/AbigailBreslin) after her sister's (Creator/ArijaBareikis) death, while she deals with a new chef (Creator/AaronEckhart). It is an [[ForeignRemake American remake]] of the German film ''Film/MostlyMartha''.
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9	The movie also stars Creator/PatriciaClarkson, Creator/JennyWade, Creator/BobBalaban, Creator/BrianFOBryne, Creator/JohnMcMartin, Creator/CeliaWeston, Creator/ZoeKravitz, among others.
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11	It was released on July 27, 2007, and is unrelated to Creator/AnthonyBourdain's [[Series/NoReservations identically-named series]].
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13	----
14	!!Tropes featured in ''No Reservations'' include:
15	* ChildishPillowFight: When Zoe and Kate are playing ''TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}}'' and Kate gets a pretty good roll, Zoe frustratedly beans her with a pillow. Cue Kate retaliating, and a montage of them engaging in a pillow fight across the apartment.
16	-->'''Kate:''' You know what this means, right?\
17	'''Zoe:''' What?\
18	'''Kate:''' WAR! ''(smacks her with a pillow)''
19	* DefrostingIceQueen: Kate goes from a bossy, emotionally detached workaholic, to a loving, motherly ParentalSubstitute who's more open about her crush on Nick.
20	* DisappearedDad: Zoe's father is not in the picture and Kate mentions not knowing his name.
21	* DownerBeginning: The film begins with Zoe's mother dying in a automotive wreck, and having to live with her emotionally-detached aunt.
22	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In Nick's very first scene in the kitchen, he's joyously singing his heart out to Pavarotti, establishing himself as a more fun-loving and free-spirited chef than the ice-in-her-veins Kate.
23	* FeedByExample: When Nick takes a break in the kitchen to whip up a plate of spaghetti, he takes a few forkfuls for himself while sitting next to Zoe. When he's called back into work, he then hands the bowl off to Zoe, who, after a moment, starts scarfing it down.
24	* GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals: Zoe has dozens of plushies strewn about her room, and one of the first scenes of her having moved in with Kate has her carrying a giant plush giraffe into the apartment.
25	* NeverTrustATrailer: When the movie was coming out to theaters, there were two trailers for it. One hyped up the "romantic comedy" angle, leaving the plot of Kate having to care for her newly orphaned niece completely out, as if she didn't exist; another trailer, oddly enough usually shown much later at night, mostly did the reverse, focusing on the niece and including only a few shots of her tension with Nick as if he were just a minor complication to the whole thing. For the DVD, the trailers used are for the "all romantic comedy" version, and the other side has been completely omitted.
26	* NiceGuy: Nick lifts the spirits of all the other chefs whenever he's in the kitchen, and he approaches adults and children with the same casual friendliness.
27	* NoAntagonist: Unlike many a rom-com, there's nobody in the film who's a total jerk, and the only real antagonist is Kate's closed-off nature [[DefrostingIceQueen which slowly goes away over the course of the film]].
28	* ParentsAsPeople: Kate begins the film as a highly flawed ParentalSubstitute, one part of which is being late to getting Zoe to and from school.
29	* PoorCommunicationKills: Kate badly misphrases her insistence that Zoe must no longer come to 22 Bleecker with her, for fear of Child Protective Services taking her away out of not wanting an adult to put a child to work, and Zoe believes that Kate doesn't just not want her at the restaurant, but never wanted her in the first place.
30	* RealMenCook: Nick's expertise as a chef is played up as intertwining with his becoming a caring father figure to Zoe.
31	* RomComJob: He's a chef, she's also a chef.
32	* ShoutOut:
33	** Like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Batali Mario Batali]], Nick wears tangerine-orange Crocs in the kitchen.
34	** When Kate first returns to her apartment after adopting Zoe, she sees that her niece fell asleep to an episode of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''.
35	* SupremeChef: Kate's culinary mastery is such that she wows her own therapist with her food, who initially wanted her to have more things in her life than cooking and cooking alone.
36	* TableclothYank: Near the tail end of the film, Kate pulls this on a particularly ornery customer after [[ItMakesSenseInContext slamming a raw steak on his table]].
37	* TerribleIntervieweesMontage: When Kate is trying to replace Nick at 22 Bleecker, there's a montage of many hopeless applicants who try poorly to mask their unfitness for the job.

Context Film / NoReservations2007