Absolutely the worst movie.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

I saw some of the reviews and I'm amazed! Good things: The only good things about this movie are the Brazilian music and the fact that it's really short (although it will seem like an eternity!) Plot/characters: The idea is not bad - Isabella is a great chef in her husband's restaurant in a little city of Brazil. He cheats on her, so Isabella decides to go to San Francisco and start her own cooking career. Usually, movies that involve food have great success, but this one is not centered on food... It's on the aroma and the effects of the ingredients. The story seems nice, but it's an illusion. It's developed poorly, the acting is awful (yes,Penelope Cruz included) and even the ending is disappointing. The most complex and kind of funny character is Monica, the heroine's transvestite best friend. (not joking)It's a real waste of time, I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone!

This was her first American movie and it bottles up all her future career: The story is about a Latin girl coming to the states where she will find fame but it's only with her roots that she will find happiness and love. I don't know if Penelope had this insight of how personal this movie could be but it adds surely a great flavor, all the more than the movie is also a bit mystic(by the way, the divinity looks like the Starbucks icon!). Personally, I don't feel ties with Latin cultures (spanish or Brazilian) but as I'm a great fan of Penelope, I'm open to where she goes. It's great to hear her cute English accent and she was sweet playing a torn wife without aggressiveness. All the cast and production draws in the modern fairytale. In conclusion, not a masterpiece but a good recipe!

Who could ever get tired of Penélope Cruz? No matter what she does, she is fantastic. Seeing her in this early film before she went all Hollywood, is pure pleasure.She has the energy, the charm, the passion that is Penélope Cruz, and she makes eating seem like the most fantastic thing on Earth.She splits from her husband (Murilo Benício) and heads to San Francisco to take up residence with her best friend Monica (Harold Perrineau). She gets a TV gig after being seen by a producer (Mark Feuerstein).Now, her husband has found her and works to get her back. Of course, the producer is also after her, and Monica is working both men to improve them and make them worthy.With a stirring soundtrack featuring the music of Toquinho, Paulinho Mosca, Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra, and more.

This film was troubling to me. Penelope Cruz is beautiful. You can't take your eyes off of her. And the other two good features were: 1. the production design, carefully and artistically executed, and 2. the music. it was great, smooth, Brazillian jazz. But this is where the good part ends. The movie itself was confused. The writing was not very good; it was vapid, simple- minded, anything but clever, trite and unintelligent. Further, there were few turning points and value changes. Many themes were repeated; jokes were repeated; visuals were repeated; a Brazillian band appears out of nowhere playing to prostitutes in San Francisco, a transsexual is released from prison for an unknown reason that had nothing to do with anything. If the writer wanted to make a surrealistic, fantasy-filled, colorful movie, she should have rewritten 90 percent of the dialog to be clever and meaningful. The good actors in this film could not begin to save it from the bad writing.