Simply Irresistible Synopsis: After her mother’s death, mediocre chef Amanda Shelton is having trouble attracting customers to her family’s restaurant. While shopping for ingredients, she is given a magical crab by mysterious Gene O’Reilly. Afterward, Amanda’s dishes suddenly become excellent, inducing strong emotional reactions in everyone who eats them. Tom Bartlett, who is preparing to open his own eatery, tries her cooking and falls in love.
By chance, Tom and his current girlfriend end up at Amanda’s restaurant for lunch, where Amanda makes a surprisingly spectacular crab dish. Amanda and Tom begin to spend more time together as Amanda’s culinary talents improve drastically, drawing in more and more customers, all of whom react emotionally to her food. Soon, Tom begins to wonder if Amanda might be a witch due to his own reaction to her and her food.
I’ve got to be honest with you guys; I don’t even know what to do with Simply Irresistible. It seemed very disjointed to me. I didn’t even understand the premise very well.
A magic crab gives Amanda her excellent culinary skills. Why? Is it her dead mother in crab form? What about Tom prompted this crab to decide he was the perfect match for Amanda? He didn’t come across as some playboy womanizer. He was just a man who had a three-date relationship rule… and based on how crazy and controlling his current girlfriend, Chris, was… I couldn’t really blame him for it.
I can see how the producers were eager to capitalize on Sarah Michelle Gellar’s popularity at the time, as she was starring in Buffy the Vampire Slayer when she made this film. I swear they even took a Buffy promotional photo for one of the posters.
She’s okay in this movie, but she’s also wasted on a weak script, and I know she probably worked the best she could with what she had. I haven’t really seen Sean Patrick Flanery in much. He reminded me a lot of a young Ewan McGregor in this, lacking some charm. He was fine, too. Their chemistry was also fine. A lot of it… fine.
I guess I don’t know what the point of Simply Irresistible was. Was Amanda a witch? Why didn’t she freak out over her obvious new abilities… like floating in the air when she’s kissing Tom? She seemed to understand that her food was affecting people, and yet… there are times when she doesn’t. So much of this movie is nonsensical, ridiculous, and not at all endearing. It’s just confusing and lacking an actual plot. I would recommend that you resist watching Simply Irresistible. It’s not even worth the 10 minutes of Amanda Peet.
Watched: 05/14/2022
Notable Song: Every Little Thing (He) Does Is Magic by Shawn Colvin
