What nourishment there is to be gained from this remake of Ang Lee's Eat Drink Man Woman comes from the very likeable cast, who make the most of their undercooked roles. The wonderful Hector Elizondo (usually the best thing about every Garry Marshall movie) stars as Martin, a widowed master chef, who is losing his sense of taste and smell. Like Fiddler on the Roof's Tevye, he is confounded by his three daughters. One, a successful but not completely happy businesswoman, suddenly announces that she has bought her own condo and will be moving out; his middle daughter (Elizabeth Peña) is a repressed, "old maid" schoolteacher, recently born again; and his youngest is dating a Cuban hunk. Stirring the pot is the arrival of a flamboyant and sexy widow in the neighborhood (Raquel Welch, who unlike fine wine, has hardly gotten better with age). The cinematic equivalent of comfort food, bland and predictable, but mildly satisfying thanks to the attractive cast, this is still a strong optional purchase, especially since it is all too rare that Hollywood serves up a film presenting a positive portrayal of a close-knit Mexican-American family. (K. Lee Benson)
Tortilla Soup
Columbia TriStar, 103 min., PG-13, VHS: $103.99, DVD: $27.95 Volume 17, Issue 2
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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