Rating: 

The Info

Directed by: Mark Tarlov
Written by: Judith Roberts, Elisabeth Robinson
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean Patrick Flaherty, Patricia Clarkson
Produced by: Jon Amiel, Joe Caracciolo Jr, John Fiedler

The Nutshell

A young restaraunt owner is magically made to fall in love with another young restaraunt owner.
 

The Review

    To put it lightly.... Simply Irresistible sucks. This is the kind of film that makes me hate the current state of Hollywood, where so many ideas, no matter how inane, can be financed and given the go-ahead. This is a perfect example of why certain studios are experiencing financial troubles.

    Simply Irresistible finds Sarah Michelle Gellar  playing Amanda Shelton, a young woman running the small restaurant her mother had run before she passed away. She is watching helplessly as her restaraunt is slowly running out of funds to stay open. Along comes a mysterious stranger who gives her a magic crab (yes, that's right) and plays matchmaker between Amanda and Tom Bartlett, yet another restaraunteur. Tom is opening the newest in a chain of luxury eateries and is experiencing relationship problems... in fact he has actually graphed his past relationships over time to prove it. Thanks to the mystery magic man, the two of them fall in love with each other. Along the budding relationship's bumpy ride, Amanda realizes that she has gained the ability to magically pump her emotions into the food she cooks.

    There are lots of things wrong with this film. The audience is never given any reason to want the two main characters to work out. There is nothing endearing about Tom Bartlett, nothing that makes him special. Amanda is cast in a sympathetic light from the get-go and we are never given a chance to judge her for ourselves. Amanda and Tom are two boring people who happen to be randomly chosen by this mysterious magical guy to fall in love. The mystery man's presence is never explained, nor does he ever explain why he chose the two of them to fall in love. By the end of the movie, Amanda and Tom realize that their love has nothing to do with her magic foods but rather that it is real, yet, it really isn't. The whole reason that they are together in the first place is a. because of her food and b. because that Cupid guy keeps pushing them together, thus how do we really know if it is real? Also, I have a major problem with the mystery man's crab. This crab sits there and watches Amanda from the very start of the movie, and yet she never wonders why the crab is there, or wonders how it is that the crab seems to be watching her every move.

    There are numerous other problems with Simply Irresistible, including with the editing, direction and acting, yet these all pale to the problem of the story itself which is bland and dull. Simply Irresistible doesn't contain any inkling of an interesting romance and is a must-miss.

Copyright - Tim Chandler

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