Recipe for a Perfect Christmas (2005)

A newly appointed food critic finds her life turned upside down when her uninhibited mother arrives unannounced at Christmas. Desperate to offload her, she enlists the help of a young chef, with surprising results.

Director:

Sheldon Larry

Writers:

Rachel Feldman, Susan Nanus

Stars:

Christine Baranski, Carly Pope, Bobby Cannavale

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christine Baranski	...	Lee Bellmont
Carly Pope	...	J.J. Jenner
Bobby Cannavale	...	Alex Stermadapolous
Monica Parker	...	Irma Van Wyck
Kristen Hager	...	Morgan
Tracy Dawson	...	Cody
Peter Cockett	...	Elliot
Garwin Sanford	...	Clay McNeil
Clive Walton	...	Malcolm Bristol
Fulvio Cecere	...	Johnny Iannides
Louise Pitre	...	Coco
Dean Armstrong	...	Reynard
Jonas Chernick	...	Peter
Lubomir Mykytiuk	...	Dmitri
Scott Gibson	...	Kenny

Storyline

It's Christmas time. JJ works at a magazine as the assistant for the food critic. When the critic leaves, her boss gives her the opportunity to be the new critic. So she tries to find a restaurant to write about. But when her mother, whom she doesn't have a good relationship with and who's a little wild shows up after losing her job. JJ can't deal with her. When Alex a restaurateur who is struggling and facing the possibility of being closed asks her to come to his restaurant and try it out and write about it. She agrees on the condition that he take her mother off her hands. Alex agrees and forms a rapport with her that amazes JJ.

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Plot Keywords:

christmas | food critic | dinner | dancing | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Goofs

The chain lock on J.J.'s apt. door is incorrectly installed, making it worthless. The 'slot' piece on the door should have the hole the end-of-chain-fits-into away from the door edge, not next to it.

User Reviews

A regular usual comedy - but with an unacceptable error

This movie is not a real high performance film, but it is a very usual kind of story, which even has some funny moments. However, what makes its score lower, is a complete lack of a minimum cultural knowledge, especially about Brazil. In a certain point of the movie Christine Baransky (Lee Bellmont in the film) says that she loves the Brazilians, and especially the music of "salsa" - which demonstrates an absolute lack of knowledge of the Brazilian music: salsa is not, and never has been, Brazilian. Later in the same movie, they arrive to the place where it is supposed to have Brazilian dance music, and what you can hear is mambo and tango - none of them having any Brazilian connection (the real one would be the samba, or maybe the bossa-nova etc..). As mentioned, this lack of knowledge is unacceptable for a movie made in 2005, and by USA producers which are in the same American continent with the other Latin American countries. This fact about the film, reduces any scoring, not only for the error, but because it shows that the film makers has no reasonable cultural worries (and possible knowledge) thought working in a "cultural" environment. Therefore, the good acting of the stars are compromised by the inaccuracy of what should be everyday medium level education.

Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 December 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Smothered

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jaffe/Braunstein Films, Muse Entertainment Enterprises, WildRice Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1