Simply Irresistible
Watching a movie recently, I was inspired to begin my own equivalent of Roger Ebert’s “The Great Movies” series. The difference is, I’m interested in bringing to your attention films that weren’t particularly successful in their theatrical runs, weren’t terribly acclaimed in a lot of cases, and may even be uneven quality-wise. They may not be great (though some will be), but they would probably make winning rentals in the future, regardless of your genre preference, if only for the opportunity to see something you otherwise wouldn’t see. Technically, you could say this began with Steven Soderbergh’s “King of the Hill” last month, but for the sake of the subject heading, it begins today with “Simply Irresistible.” Next month I’ll continue with “Swingers,” while in August I’ll review “Rush Hour.” In the future (I hope to make the series- entitled “Bri’s Neglected Gems”- a monthly series), I plan on looking at films like “The Whole Wide World,” The Coen Brothers’ “The Big Lebowski,” Mike Judge’s “Office Space,” Alfred Hitchcock’s “To Catch a Thief,” Anthony Minghella’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” and “The River Wild,” among others.
To begin the series, however, I decided to look at the film that inspired me to start this series, “Simply Irresistible.” First released around Valentine’s Day in 1999, the film was met with largely negative reviews and terrible box-office, not even surpassing $10 million. Video and DVD hasn’t helped matters, and the film is seen as a misfire for star Sarah Michelle Gellar in her attempt to remove herself from her “Buffy” image and teen movie roots.
A shame, because while the movie is no masterpiece of imagination or originality, it does offer one thing most teen comedies can’t- a genuinely sweet premise and enough charm and heart to lift one’s spirits, regardless of mood. It doesn’t attempt to be anything other than a sweet, sentimental, old-fashioned love story. No swearing, no sex or gratuitous nudity, and no prom or bets- just a story of two people so meant for each other one can’t help but feel happy for them at the inevitable “fairy tale” ending.
The story- concocted by Judith Roberts- is simple. Gellar plays Amanda Shelton, a young woman whom is cooking- quite poorly- and running her late mother’s restaurant, which is not doing so well. One day she runs into Tom Bartlett (Sean Patrick Flanery, “Young Indiana Jones”) in a local market when a peculiar, “magical” crab she buys from a “guardian angel” of sorts (Christopher Durang) nips him on the leg. Bartlett is opening his own restaurant, only his is in a ritzy uptown department store run by the founder’s grandson Jonathan (Dylan Baker). With some intervention, Amanda and Tom are reunited when Tom and his girlfriend Chris (Amanda Peet) come to Amanda’s restaurant to eat. Under pressure to make a great impression of the cooking variety for Tom, Amanda gets a bit overzealous with emotion when making the food, resulting in Chris dumping Tom and basically trashing the restaurant and Amanda becoming a “magical” cook. From here, the film explores Tom and Amanda’s budding relationship as her restaurant becomes a success again and his prepares for what ends up a mouthwatering opening.
I’ve attempted to reveal as little as possible about the story as to give you a chance to experience the pleasures of the film yourself if you choose to do so. What I will tell you is that director Mark Tarlov has fashioned this lite-as-air romance as a fantasy/fairy tale- there’s not much that is believable, but it all works in the end. When the climactic meal ends with the lovers dancing above a vanilla fog, the film takes on a delicate joy that makes it near impossible not to smile.
Of course, that would be impossible were it not for the two lead performances. Flanery plays Tom as a neurotic, overworked businessman seemingly in over his head with his bewitching romance with Amanda. He makes paper airplanes and even has theories about dating and charts “happiness over time” on his computer. It’s a one-dimensional role that Flanery doesn’t always succeed at (his overuse of “very” in describing Amanda’s cooking is a bit much; did no one have a thesaurus on-set?), but turns into a likable counterpoint to Gellar’s Amanda. Is Flanery the next Cary Grant? No, but he isn’t a dud at this sort of romantic lead thing either.
Neither is Gellar. Her role as Amanda lacks the vicious bite of her “Cruel Intentions” role and the sarcasm of “Buffy,” but her portrayal of Amanda’s confusion about her suddenly great cooking is dead-on- the kind of unexpected change in one’s life that lends itself to such confusion and contemplation. Like Flanery, Gellar brings gravity to her one-dimensional role that a lesser actor couldn’t have- she gets the viewer on Amanda’s side, and we begin to care about her. When she’s happy, we’re happy for her. When she’s sad while preparing the debut meal at Tom’s restaurant, we can’t help but feel for her. And when she goes for broke in preparing the dessert at the same dinner party, one can’t help but be proud of her. Personally, I wish Gellar could’ve found a way to inject some of the wry humor she delivers on “Buffy” into the role, but her performance- despite what her detractors’ say- is right on. Give Gellar the right type of role, and she could conceivably be her generation’s Meg Ryan and Gillian Anderson rolled into one delightful package.
Admittedly, Gellar and Flanery combined don’t have great romantic chemistry together, but there are some great moments with them, including a very funny scene where Amanda relays something her friend and cooking companion at her restaurant Nolan (Larry Gilliard Jr. makes a sly addition to the proceedings) told her about men and sex. Gilliard isn’t the only supporting ace up this film’s sleeve; Dylan Baker and Patricia Clarkson also create comic (and romantic) sparks as Tom’s boss and fellow co-worker (respectively), whom also form an unexpected romance over Amanda’s cooking, and Amanda Peet- the budding comic actress from “The Whole Nine Yards”- makes a sharp impression as Tom’s new ex-girlfriend in the little screen time she receives.
Romantic films such as this almost demand terrific soundtracks, and this film almost has one. The score by Gil Goldstein is perfect, with one of the most lovely love themes in recent movies, but for my taste, the songs in the film are a bit too “icky-icky” sweet overall, but I guess given the subject that’s not much of a shock. Three songs I enjoyed were “Take Your Time” by Lori Carson, “Beautiful Girls” by Chris Lloyd, and “Once in a Blue Moon” by Sydney Forest. Am I a hopeless romantic for liking these songs? Well, yeah- they’re every bit as sentimental as the rest of the songs in the movie. Still, like the best film music- song or score- they perfectly compliment the action on screen, and they were memorable on those terms.
Overall, there really isn’t too much about “Simply Irresistible” to recommend it, but what there is (the performances, the charm, the music) makes up for many of the film’s lulls. Plus, how many movies like it come out now? I guarantee you won’t see anything like it in theatres right now. Give it a shot, take a chance, and- like Gellar’s character- follow your heart. You might like what you see when all is said and done. And if you don’t, you can always go somewhere else.
