"No Reservations" seems to have the right ingredients: good actors, good food, a can't miss love story, a surprise child, but somehow someplace in the mix the flavor goes a little flat.

Zeta-Jones earns our sympathy as the highly respected, albeit hard-nosed, chef who undergoes therapy at her boss's request. At the outset, "No Reservations" is a story about her coming to terms with something. Perhaps she'll have a dramatic breakthrough. But as she says herself, "I don't know why my boss wants me in therapy." Sure, when it comes to telling off the patrons, a little counseling wouldn't hurt; otherwise, the cooking appears to be quite fulfilling for her.

Anyway, enter her niece presenting some challenges, which our chef appears to be handling as well as can be expected. Still, we're probably supposed to feel she needs something more in her life -- enter the handsome cook.

So, a story about a top chef with a little girl and a story about the top chef with a love interest. Not that these dramas can't, but they just don't seem to blend well in this picture. There are moments that work -- several moments. But on the whole, this production just doesn't flow well, doesn't drive, doesn't build to climax.

One other hindrance: the heavy-handed score. More than once it creates a mood more appropriate of a supernatural thriller than a romantic drama. Lastly, my girlfriend simply required me to say that the picture on the whole played rather unoriginal. There, now I've said it.

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