simply irresistible tries really hard to recapture the feel of an old- fashioned romantic fantasy . in fact , it tries too hard . the film wants to be soft , cuddly , and loveable , and succeeds only in being incredibly stupid . i'm usually kind to this sort of film , especially when there is a wonderfully charming lead performance such as sarah michelle gellar delivers here . unfortunately , her performance is comppletely wasted since the film does not provide her with a leading man that is a tenth as interesting as she is . gellar stars as amanda , a chef at her small family restaraunt that is going out of business . one reason is that she can't cook very well at all . one day some guy gives her a crab ( i'm not making this up ) , and all of a sudden crazy things begin to happen such as her food actually tasting great . people start flocking to her restaraunt and she has a hard time keeping up with all the customers . sean patrick flanery is an upper class businessman who is planning on opening his own restaraunt . he stops by amanda's one day and is entranced by the food , eventhough his girlfriend breaks up with him at the same time . amanda is instantly attracted to him and they begin to fall for one another . this is helped by the magic of the food , which creates a thick vanilla fog , and has them floating off the ground . flanery's character is one of the most confusing leading men in a romantic comedy in quite some time . at first he loves the fact that they are rolling around kissing in the vanilla fog . when they start to float , it's too much for him . he claims that he wants to be in control of his own destiny , and refuses to be with her alone again . whenever she tries to get near him , he shouts at her and calls her a witch , like he's in salem or something . what the hell is this guy's problem ? who wouldn't want to roll around and kiss sarah michelle gellar in thick vanilla fog ? who wouldn't want to be holding her as the two of you float off the ground ? it doesn't help that flanery has absolutely zero charisma . his character annoyed me so much at times i had to look away from the screen . surprisingly , the only other interesting performance comes from patricia clarkson , as flanery's assistant . i very much disliked her annoyingly mannered performance in high art . but here she strips away all the extra baggage and allows her natural personality to come through . i found her to be rather charming in a classy , sophisticated way . clarkson and gellar do their best to make this featherweight film palatable , but they receive very little help . the film does have some nice photography . they sure got the look of a old-fashioned romance right . but the most important thing in any romance is chemistry , and despite gellar's best efforts , there is none to speak of . other than some nice photography and two fine performances , simply irresistible offers nothing for even the least discriminating of viewers . larry mcgillicuddy - the cinemaniac <a href= " http : //members . xoom . com/lmcgill/movpage . htm " >http : //members . xoom . com/lmcgill/movpage . htm</a> 
