In theaters

NO RESERVATIONS, directed by Scott Hicks, written by Carol Fuchs and Sandra Nettelbeck, 104 minutes, rated PG.

The new Scott Hicks movie, “No Reservations,” is a tragedy, a romantic comedy and a drama, with its charismatic cast navigating the manufactured highs and lows with enough skill to deepen what otherwise might have been a movie sorely lacking in depth.

Screenwriters Carol Fuchs and Sandra Nettelbeck based their script on the 2001 German film “Mostly Martha,” a good movie that also featured a story driven by its soundtrack and saved by its cast, each of which was better than the material.

In that film, Martina Gedeck was Martha, a Hamburg chef unexpectedly saddled with her niece when Martha’s sister dies in an accident. Sergio Castellitto is her sous-chef Mario, an Italian of such limitless patience, you have to wonder whether his sauce, so to speak, packs any zing. But it does and he gradually wins Martha over, which is no surprise to anyone who sees the film.

In “Reservations,” Catherine Zeta-Jones is Kate, a revered gourmet chef at a top New York restaurant that is located in the cleanest slice of Manhattan you’ve ever seen – its version of Bleecker Street, for instance, is so spit-shined, you could eat off its sewers.

Kate is a woman happily tethered only to the job she loves, so when she loses her sister to an accident and assumes the responsibility of raising her niece, Zoe (Abigail Breslin), the transition proves a bit more difficult than she imagined.

Zoe wants nothing to do with her aunt, whom she barely knows, and Kate, by extension, isn’t sure what to do herself. She seeks help from her psychiatrist (an excellent Bob Balaban), but the situation nevertheless stretches her to her limit, so much so that Kate’s boss, Paula (Patricia Clarkson), insists that Kate take time off from work to get her life back in order – and, most importantly, to grieve.

Reluctantly, she does so, unaware that the affable Italian sous-chef Nick (Aaron Eckhart), whose formidable 5 o’clock shadow could scale a fish, is hired to run the kitchen in her absence. When Kate catches wind of that, let’s just say the movie whips its whites into one heady froth.

While there is little logic and no surprises in “No Reservations” – the movie can be a heartbreaker, though one that doesn’t leave a dry clich? in the room – films such as this can manage to get by on subtlety, feeling and charm so long as they have the right cast to see them through. “Mostly Martha” had that. This movie does, too.

Zeta-Jones, for instance, is quite different from how we’ve seen her in previous films. At the start, you don’t believe her for a minute – the rat in “Ratatouille” is a more convincing cook – but by the end, she’s done enough to win you over, particularly in the few touching scenes she shares with Zoe. As for Eckhart, who is cast as the world’s most sensitive, perfect man, he goes to great lengths to appeal to the headstrong Kate by convincing her that he’s at once worthy of her and also that he’s not her equal.

At my screening, nobody seemed to mind the latter.

Grade: B-

On DVD

THE NUMBER 23, directed by Joel Schumacher, written by Fernley Phillips, 95 minutes, rated R.

Pick a number, any number, though preferably not “The Number 23.”

This psychological thriller from director Joel Schumacher is a mess that would love to scare the No. 2 out of you, but forget it. The film is an incomprehensible joke, with Fernley Phillips’ dim script derailing it, as does the feverish acting by Jim Carrey and Virginia Madsen, the latter of whom has yet to make a memorable movie since 2004’s “Sideways.”

The film stars Carrey as dog catcher Walter Sparrow, who becomes obsessed by the number 23 after his wife, Aggie (Madsen), buys him an unpublished book she finds at a used-book store.

The book features a detective named Fingerling who sees the number 23 as a curse. Not surprisingly, Walter starts to do the same, likely because weird things start to happen to him and particularly since he and Fingerling have so much in common. Carrey, after all, plays Fingerling in the heavily stylized flashbacks, with a tawdry Madsen tarted up in a black wig to play sluttish Fabrizia, the girlfriend Fingerling murders.

As Walter succumbs to the encroaching madness, one’s questions about whether Aggie will suffer the same fate as Fabrizia are put on the fast track when Walter starts dreaming about stabbing her to death. As a concerned Aggie herself notes to the increasingly freaked-out Walter, “You’ve concerned yourself with minutiae and you’ve drawn wild conclusions from them!”

The film follows suit, with Schumacher and Phillips employing every conceivable connection to the number 23. Since the movie finds demonic qualities attached to the number, Charles Manson and Hitler naturally factor into the figure, but so do the Mayans, Shakespeare, Kurt Cobain (!), the Latin alphabet, the dropping of the atomic bomb, Walter’s own past, and countless other connections.

What’s the significance behind all the hallucinatory hooey the movie courts? Since that leads to a last-minute twist, we’ll leave the muddled, unsatisfying results for those who care to do the math.

Grade: D

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays and Fridays in Lifestyle, and weekends in Television as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Akeelah and the Bee – B+

The Ant Bully – B+

Apocalypto – C

Are We Done Yet? DVD, Blu-ray – D

Arthur and the Invisibles – C

Babel – A-

Because I Said So – C

Blood Diamond – C+

Bobby – C-

Borat – B+

Breach – B+

Breaking and Entering – C-

Bridge to Terabithia – B+

Casino Royale – A

Charlotte’s Web – B+

Children of Men – A

The Dead Girl – A-

Dead Silence – F

Deja Vu – C+

The Departed – A

The Devil Wears Prada – B+

Disturbia – B

Dreamgirls – B

Eragon – C

Everyone’s Hero – C+

Fail Safe – A-

Flags of Our Fathers – B+

Flushed Away – B+

The Fountain – D

Full House: Seventh Season – C+

Ghost Rider – C-

The Good German – C

The Good Shepherd – B-

Half Nelson – A-

Hannibal Rising – C

Happy Feet – A-

The Hills Have Eyes II – D

The History Boys – B+

A History of Violence – A

The Holiday – C+

Hollywoodland – C

The Illusionist – B+

Infamous – B+

Invincible – B

Jackass Number Two – B

Kinky Boots – B+

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – B+

Last Holiday – B

The Last King of Scotland – B+

Letters from Iwo Jima – B+

Little Children – A-

Little Miss Sunshine – B+

The Marine – C+

Monster House – B+

Muppet Show: Season Two – A

Music and Lyrics – B

My Super Ex-Girlfriend – A-

Night at the Museum – C+

Notes on a Scandal – B+

The Number 23 – D

The Painted Veil – B+

Pan’s Labyrinth – A

Premonition – C-

The Prestige – B+

Primeval – D

The Queen – A-

Rocky Balboa – B+

A Scanner Darkly – B+

Sherrybaby – B+

Shooter – C+

Shaun of the Dead HD DVD – B+

Shut Up & Sing – A-

Smokin’ Aces – C-

Snakes On A Plane: A-

That Girl: Season Three – B+

This Film is Not Yet Rated – B-

TMNT DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray – C

300 – C-

Unaccompanied Minors – C

United 93 – A

Venus – B+

The Wicker Man – BOMB

Zodiac – C