Mediterranean Food (2009)

Good concept, poorly executed.

A Disappointing Continuation

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This is a fun romantic-comedy from veteran writer/director Joaquín Oristrell and co-written with Oristrell by another film vet, Yolanda Garcia Serrano. Sophia (Olivia Molina) has been raised working in her parents small family restaurant.It's a bright and clever script with great comedic dialog and a certain innocence of simple fun about it. A great cast and excellent support from Carmen Balagué as Sophia's mother Loren. I would give this a 8.0 out of 10 and recommend it.

In a seaside village in Spain, the teenager Sofía (Olivia Molina) is a bad student that helps her father Ramón (Roberto Álvarez) and her mother Loren (Carmen Balagué) in the kitchen of the small family restaurant and dreams on becoming the best chef in the world. Her best childhood friends are the correct Toni (Paco León) and the reckless Frank (Alfonso Bassave). When Sofía finds that Ramón is bisexual, she leaves her fiancé Toni to work with Frank in a five stars hotel and has one night stand with him. However, she returns to her village when she gets pregnant and marries Toni. Years later, Frank also returns to his village and Sofía loves Toni and Frank and they all live together as a threesome. Sofía cooks with passion and her top-notch culinary is recognized by other chefs. However, when Frank decides to get married and have a normal life, the relationship between Sofía and Toni is affected."Dieta Mediterránea" is an unconventional romance about cooking and threesome. The story is a combination of "Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos" with "Woman on Top", but does not work well since Sofía is a non-likable character that does not care to her children. Actually, all the characters are not well-developed and the plot expects to be fashionable but does not convince. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Dieta Mediterrânea" ("Mediterranean Diet")

This film is about a village woman who has got the skills to become a five star chef. She has to choose between the man she loves and the career she longs for. Or does she? "Mediterranean Food" concentrates on the relationship between Sophia, Toni and Frank; while food is delegated to the background. Instead of celebrating the culinary art, it feels as if Sophia just happens to be someone who can cook. This aspect is unlike the other romantic comedy involving food, such as "Bella Martha".That is not to say "Mediterranean Food" is not enjoyable though. In fact it is very entertaining. It has a lot of subtly funny situations; and plenty more erotic scenes to excite the senses. I find "Mediterranean Food" enjoyable.

Might have enjoyed this more on the stage as some kind of a farce but as a rom-com (or whatever it was supposed to be) it didn't work for me. Very jerky scenario which seems only to benefit the Keira Knightly lookalike without actually succeeding in making her a likable character. In fact all the characters were shallow and inconsistent and certain scenes intended to titillate the spectator appeared ridiculous rather than farcical (eg when one of her children walks into the bedroom).The references to cooking and food added nothing to the storyline, when in fact they could have held the whole thing together.On the other hand, the English subtitles were quite frankly hysterical (I think I laughed more at the subtitle boobies than I did at anything in the script). Grammatical errors, typos and spelling mistakes in every line.