La cucina (2007)

On one warm summer evening, four very important meals are being made. Thirty year old Lily Ireland is making a Insalata Caprese for the new and much older man in her life; a photo journalist, born and raised in Spain named Michael, who she couldn’t be more excited about. In the apartment just across the courtyard, a very pregnant Shelly Hynd (Leisha Hailey)is making her best attempt at Lasagna, while her husband Chris looks on, knowing he is moments away from ordering a Pizza…and when he does, the highly hormonal Shelly is out the door and straight up the stairs to her friend Jude’s house for some comfort. Shelly finds her friend lost in her passion, and just beginning an elaborate Italian meal for she and her lover, Celia, whom they both know won’t make it home in time. And finally, there is the culinary extravaganza being prepared in front of Celia, who works on a movie set, where on that particular day, they are shooting a couple cooking, while the crew devours pizza on the side-line. Over the course of the evening, all of the cooks and the guests of the kitchen, truly experience why it is called “The heart of the house.” The discussions organically flow to a place where they are all about relationships, and they are all about truth, and desire, and no one is allowed off the hook about all that they are not saying amidst their words. Lily and Michael dance around what they want in life as they dance around the kitchen in a seductive and emotional game, that never even allows them to make it to the dining table. As Shelly unloads all of her fears of motherhood and the future of her marriage, Jude’s acceptance and knowledge of Celia’s infidelity rises to the surface without a word being said between the bruschetta and the cannoli. All the while, Chris has settled into an evening of Pizza and Adult Entertainment on DVD, and Celia has decided to reel in a young actress curious about lesbians, just for sport. …And in the end, there is no resolution, but there is hope, and there is love, and there is life, unveiled and unapologetic in La Cucina.