As Chef Lets Her Hair Down, Who Needs Food as Metaphor?

One of the most persistent and endearingly silly subcategories of the woman’s picture is the Symbolic Hair Story, those cautionary tales of uptight ladies with upswept tresses in which a woman’s journey directly corresponds with the downward trajectory of her chignon.

Actress Olivia de Havilland modeled a number of impressively tight buns in such films as “The Heiress,” but even better is the glorious swirl worn by Kim Novak in “Vertigo,” that spiral of platinum into which James Stewart’s character almost literally swoons.

In his new film, “Possession,” director Neil LaBute references Novak’s irresistible vortex with a shot of Gwyneth Paltrow’s flaxen hair done up in a knot as tight as a fist, a knot that, of course, will invariably be undone by love. Once she appears with a chopstick piercing her suddenly sloppy-chic twist, it’s only a matter of time before both hair and defenses tumble.

Although the new German romantic comedy “Mostly Martha” is being sold as a food-as-metaphor-for-life story, it is in truth another chapter in the never-ending hair story, one in which a woman’s happiness isn’t just measured by how far she lets down her hair, but as for Rapunzel, is predicated on its release.

The film’s title character (Martina Gedeck) wears her hair piled high on her head mainly, it seems, because she doesn’t have anyone who can tuck an errant strand behind her ear or blow a few feathery tendrils off her neck.

Written and directed by Sandra Nettelbeck without a suggestion of personal style, “Mostly Martha” centers on a chef whose entire being is subsumed by her profession. No matter if she’s in front of a stove or stretched out on her analyst’s couch, Martha is either cooking food or rhapsodizing about ingredients and technique, from the proper way to prepare pigeon to the most humane way to kill a lobster (never boil!).

Her therapist doesn’t think this especially odd, and once we crack the film’s code, neither do we.

As it turns out, it’s all in the metaphors. Nearly friendless, Martha is lonely and isolated and so, as she explains in voice-over, “in the tank, a lobster eats itself from the inside out.”

Martha doesn’t like the new sous-chef, Mario (Italian Sergio Castellitto, clumsily dubbed into German) and grumbles when the restaurant owner wants to add gnocchi to the menu.

Says Mario of the dumplings, while shooting a knowing look at Martha (whose hair is starting to billow), “They tend to be tough and inedible if you don’t try your best.”

And so it goes until Martha gets not just a kid (her recently orphaned 8-year-old niece, Lina) and a love interest (guess who), she gets something like a life--that is, if only the filmmaker knew what one looked like.

It’s a drag how Nettelbeck sees working women--or at least this working woman--for whom she shows little understanding; there’s a puritan, even punitive, cast to the way she sees her character, whose pathology she digs at with the tenacity of a truffle hound.

First Nettelbeck sets Martha up as an eccentric, then she throws her a tragedy, amping her punishment (and ours) with a merciless jazzy score. Instead of being allowed to heal, Martha is continually taken to task for not being an instant good mother.

Nettelbeck lards the film with scenes of the chef’s failure to nurture her niece, underscoring Martha’s frowns even as she’s denied a moment of contemplation, say, reading a book or just relishing the quiet of her apartment. The woman can’t even cook a meal for herself, much less have a good cry.

When the inevitable turnaround happens, it isn’t because Martha has experienced some sort of epiphany (like hiring a decent baby-sitter for some peace of mind), it’s because Mario has won over the niece with spaghetti and conquered a rival with a mysterious concoction.

The Italian thaws the German and transforms her into the mother and lover she never knew she wanted to be. In other words, Martha finally lets down her hair. Gag me with a spoon.

MPAA rating: PG, for thematic material and mild language. Times guidelines: some intimidating haute cuisine, but that’s about it.

‘Mostly Martha’

Martina Gedeck...Martha

Sergio Castellitto...Mario

Maxime Foerste...Lina

A Pandora Film Produktion GmbH, Cologne, production, released by ParamountClassics. Screenwriter and director Sandra Nettelbeck. Producers Karl Baumgartner and Christoph Friedel. Cinematographer Michael Bertl. Editor Mona Brauer. Costumes Bettina Helmi. Music producer Manfred Eicher. Production designer Thomas Freudenthal. Running Time: 1 hour and 47 minutes.

Exclusively at Laemmle’s Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills (310) 274-6869 and Landmark’s NuWilshire, 1314 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica (310) 394-8099.