Receitas de Amor

I know that cheap has a negative connotation. This film indeed suffers from a low (cheap) budget but this movie isn't as bad as many people try to claim on IMDb. Perhaps, it'll get a more fancy remake someday. Then this original will be positively reevaluated. Until that date, you might want to form your own opinion.

I wanted to and expected to enjoy this but its basically Britain's equivalent to a Lifetime movie with an absolutely unimaginative story, flat romance, bland characters and filled with every romantic comedy movie cliché going.

I was actually surprised by how, well not bad exactly -because the acting and production is fine but just unoriginal this was. I did enjoy the leads (Dougray Scott & Claire Forlani) but their romance was still pretty uninspiring. Scott plays a successful chef and restaurateur in London who loses his zest for cooking after his wife dies in a car accident. With encouragement from friends (including a cameo from Gordon Ramsey) he buys a country pub and turns it into a gourmet restaurant. Forlani is a food critique and his mousse catches her eye. 6/28/14

Rob (Dougray Scott) is a London chef who is definitely haute cuisine. One of his motivations to do superior work is a bad review he got from a restaurant critic. One day, his lovely wife dies in a traffic accident leaving him a widower with a young daughter. Needing to change his life, he decides to move to the country, where a rundown old inn has housing for his family and a large pub. Not everyone is happy to have him in the neighborhood, some folks like their bucolic setting as peaceful as possible. Since the pub business begins very slowly, this isn't a great problem. Also, there is a beautiful woman named Kate (Claire Forlani) who lives with her parents nearby. This lady has been unlucky in love herself and, although she is the object of affection for a snooty gentleman resident, she shies away from attachments. Yet, Rob and Kate begin to like the looks of each other, especially when Kate's efforts to drum up business for Rob turns out well. There are a few secrets afoot, however, which may damage the future of their romance. Will it be so? This is a nice film for the ever-thirsty romance fans, like me. Scott and Forlani are fan favorites and the rest of the cast, which includes Simon Callow, are delightful as well. The sets, costumes, script, photography and surefooted direction combine to make a flick that is most enjoyable. Therefore, romance fans, get out of the kitchen, get some nice takeout and watch this in total bliss.

The screenplay is a lukewarm work just like all the actors in this movie, very loose, not quite convincing. The female food critic looked pretty forced and not convincing at all. The editing of this movie was also not quite good since there are several transit scenes just felt incomplete and abrupt.

The major problem of this movie is that the main character who played the role as an ingenious chef, again, very unconvincing, showing shortage of any superior cooking technique and basic sanitary alertness. Arranging and putting the final touch of the decoration for the food presentation, he combed his hairs, wiped his neck with the same hand that touched the food, yuck! Ever heard of cross-contamination? I was worried that he might pick his nose and scratch his crotch or his behind, then touch the food again. This is the major reason that I don't like any food that obviously was handled and touched by hands, especially if there were some obvious arrangement of the food on the plate, some greens or flowers? Nowadays, it seems every food, especially the food at outrageous prices, would be arranged by hands, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese...lot of so-called "cuisine" are using hands to touch, arrange, re-arrange the looks on the plates. Yack! And this chef, touched food and combed his hairs and wiped his neck at the same time. His greatness in food never showed clearly only showed that he could do some magical "Trifle", in other words, a pastry chef? Lot of scenes in this lukewarm romance comedy are just pretentious and stupid. Highly unlikely realistic.

Watchable, but not great at all.

Rob Haley (Dougray Scott) is a successful chef in London left heartbroken when his wife is killed in a car accident. His restaurant 'The World's End' suffers a deadly review and business dries up. His friend Gordon Ramsay is horrified at his state. Rob visits the sleepy country pub that his wife was going to buy and meets American food critic Kate Templeton (Claire Forlani). She's moved back in with her English father estrange since she was 12 after the failure of her relationship. He rediscovers the love of food, gathers up a couple of his old kitchen crew, and buys the rundown pub. It's a horribly slow start. Then Kate tries his food. Food critic Guy Witherspoon (Simon Callow) comes by.

I really hate the Gordon Ramsay cameo. It takes me completely out of the movie. This is a simple predictable rom-com. I'm not railing against rom-com clichés. They're clichés for a reason. For a foodie rom-com, this needs much more food porn. Personally I love the visual delights of food porn. That's the one element missing here. The leads are perfectly lovely. The evil people are perfectly douche like. The little girl should be younger and cuter. It's not aiming for much and that's what it does.