As the title heroine (Martina Gedeck) of Sandra Nettelbeck's German-language film Mostly Martha (a/k/a Drei Sterne and La bella Martha) tells her therapist, she's not compulsive, she's just precise, like any good chef. So if a customer disputes the quality of her foie gras, she'll tell him to eat liverwurst.

The film, on the other hand, is more liverwurst than foie gras, comfort food rather than an æsthetic accomplishment. Martha's obsessive, workaholic routine, devoid of social skills and social contacts but perked up by close-up montages of savory cuisine, breaks down when a melodramatic plot device deposits her sullen eight-year-old niece, Lina (Maxime Foerste), on her doorstep. Preoccupied with this new responsibility, Martha must also contend with an intruder in her workspace -- happy-go-lucky Italian chef Mario (Sergio Castellitto) has been hired to pick up the slack in the kitchen. Gedeck and Castellitto complement each other nicely: she has a soft face that she tries to make hard, he has the energy of Roberto Benigni without being an asshole. And Nettelbeck, unlike the Hollywood hack who'll direct the likely remake, shows restraint in bringing the film to its inevitable complacent conclusion. Although at times it seems too many plots will spoil the cook, Mostly Martha is mostly okay. In German with English subtitles. (107 minutes) At the Avon.