Blog Entry #3

In Mostly Martha, love is depicted in a few different ways. First of all, there is the obvious romantic love and attraction between the two main adult characters: Martha, a German chef who is obsessed with perfection and order in the kitchen, and Mario, a slightly more informal chef from Italy who cooks in a more unorthodox, interactive way. At first, Martha feels as if Mario is to replace her as head chef and initially loathes him, however she slowly begins to accept him as a co-worker and fellow chef. In addition, she becomes more friendly towards him after he succeeds in getting Lina to eat something, which Martha has been unable to do throughout the film. Eventually, this camaraderie between the two adults turns into a romance and the two begin a relationship, and eventually at the end of the film, get married.

In addition to the romantic love depicted in this film, another major type of love that appears in this film is that of familial love. After the death of Lina's mother (also Martha's sister), Lina moves in with Martha and, at first, the two have a very tense, strained relationship, and have trouble getting along with each other. Due to her trauma from the accident, Lina hardly eats anything that Martha cooks and has trouble trusting Martha to take care of her. Much like Martha thought Mario was trying to replace her at the restaurant, Lina feels that Martha is trying to take the place of Christin (a.k.a. Lina's mother). However, after the introduction of Mario into the two's lives, Lina begins to accept Martha (and to an extent, Mario) as a surrogate parent and Martha demonstrates that she really does love Lina as if she were her own daughter (e.g. keeping her from running away to Italy, cooking for her, taking her to school). Finally, this family-love developed between Lina and Martha is what drives Martha to quit her job as a chef and drive all the way to Italy with Mario in order to find Lina and start a family there. This move to Italy shows how the role of food in the film and the importance it held in Martha's life has changed; At the very beginning of the film, Martha was obsessed with cooking, more so with cooking her dishes to perfection, however after meeting Mario and adopting Lina, Martha has gone through a character development throughout the film in which she is able to settle down and start a loving family. The love that Martha, Lina, and Mario share as a family, romantic and familial, has caused Martha to overcome her compulsiveness towards cooking and following recipes, and allow Martha to actually enjoy her life with her new loving family.


Image result for mostly martha
Martha & Mario, the two main characters in the film who develop an
attraction towards each other

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