SCOTT Hicks' romantic drama serves up a tantalising New York twist on the award-winning German film Mostly Martha.

Hicks garnishes his version with a stellar cast including Catherine Zeta-Jones, making her welcome return to the big screen after embracing the role of domestic goddess to her two children.

Carol Fuchs and Sandra Nettelbeck's script lacks the delicate flavours of the original, and the tone has been sweetened excessively to suit American palates.

However, No Reservations is seasoned with enough comedy to make the heroine's metamorphosis from self-obsessed ice maiden to kind-hearted mother easy to swallow, if not to comfortably digest.

Kate Armstrong (Zeta-Jones) is a perfectionist, who has devoted the best years of her life to establishing 22 Bleecker as one of the most fashionable and well-regarded restaurants in Manhattan.

There is no room for frivolities with Kate in charge, as the pregnant sous chef and the rest of the team know only too well.

Kate's carefully ordered world turns sour when her sister is killed in a car accident, leaving behind nine-year-old daughter Zoe (Abigail Breslin).

The traumatised youngster is left in the care of her aunt.

"How was your teacher?" asks Kate after the girl's first day at school.

"Bald," replies Zoe curtly.

Kate struggles to contend with surrogate parenthood, while working unsociable hours in the kitchen under the watchful eye of manager Paula (Patricia Clarkson).

Temperatures rise with the arrival of Leah's replacement, fun-loving sous chef Nick (Aaron Eckhart), whose laissez faire attitude to cooking slowly but surely thaws Kate's heart, and helps to build bridges with Zoe.

No Reservations struggles for any originality or sophistication but the various plot strands simmer pleasantly, guaranteeing a gooey, heart-warming denouement.

Zeta-Jones looks comfortable in her pristine chef's whites, less so when called upon to convey the maelstrom of emotions churning inside her repressed, commitment-phobic heroine.

Eckhart makes the most of his undernourished charmer, flashing a butter-wouldn't-melt smile whenever possible, and Breslin once again steals the film from her older co-stars as the orphan fearful of losing more people she loves.

Balaban is piquant comic relief with his own culinary suggestion to win over Zoe: fishsticks.

"I can't believe I'm actually paying for these suggestions," despairs Kate.

Director Hicks turns up the heat in the kitchen, conveying the energy and passion of Kate's team as they create their culinary masterpieces, but the film cools noticeably in scenes between Zeta-Jones and Eckhart.

On-screen chemistry never comes to the boil.

Scenes of food preparation, such as Kate's signature dish - quail with truffle sauce - leave us ravenous for subtly flavoured haute cuisine.

No Reservations delivers no-frills home cooking.

  • See it at the ABC and Empire.