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German-language cinema isn't known for mastery of whimsy, and its typical take on childhood--evidenced in angst-fueled dramas such as The Tin Drum (terrorized tot wills himself to stop growing in Nazi Germany) or Chinese Roulette (unusually vicious Mädchen exacts revenge on cheating parents)--is pretty brutal. This may explain Mostly Martha. It could have been a big, gooey schmaltz fest given its plot (uptight, career-driven chef mellows when an adorably taciturn orphan enters the picture) and its concern with such life-affirming intoxicants as smooth jazz, sumptuous food, and earthy, witty Italian bachelors. Instead, as a mildly buoyant but mostly serious character study that doesn't give itself over completely to feel-good cutesiness, Martha shows a lot of restraint.

Martina Gedeck is Martha Klein, a celebrated chef working at a cosmopolitan bistro in Hamburg who's such a tight-ass that she limits her means of self-expression to cooking for others and chewing out philistines who don't adequately express appreciation for her efforts. Needless to say, she's in therapy, despite the fact that she seems mostly satisfied with her work-focused, solitary lifestyle. This all comes to a halt when her sister is killed in a car accident, leaving traumatized 8-year-old niece Lina (Maxime Foerste) in her charge. The only nurturing Martha is capable of is exacting food preparation, while Lina is--to Martha's thinking--stubbornly dour (empathy is also not one of Martha's strong suits) and, to make matters worse, dislikes her aunt's heavy, traditional dishes. The ice queen and the orphan are at an impasse--that is, until loving Italian sous-chef Mario (Sergio Castellitto) helps thaw relations between aunt and niece.

One of the reasons Mostly Martha succeeds is that the protagonist's tough veneer never cracks. As played by Gedeck, Martha is consistently and convincingly chilly and remote--even after she and Lina have bonded, she is still a tough read. (Who knows what fun-loving Mario sees in her?) It is a seamless enough characterization to almost distract from how conventional Mostly Martha is otherwise. Even the movie's obsession with food-preparation rituals seems cribbed from other films (Big Night, for instance). But Martha's tips on selecting and preparing lobster, detailed in her drab voice-over narration, are at least informative.