Tortilla Soup is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by María Ripoll. The screenplay by Tom Musca, Ramón Menéndez and Vera Blasi is based on the film Eat Drink Man Woman, which was written by Hui-Ling Wang, Ang Lee, and James Schamus.
Plot[]
Semi-retired Mexican-American chef Martin Naranjo shares a suburban Los Angeles home with his three adult daughters. Although he has lost the senses of smell and taste since his wife's death, he still cooks elaborate, multi-course meals for his family and friends. The women humor their father's old-fashioned ways, but each is searching for fulfillment outside the family circle.
Leticia, the oldest and most conservative of the three, is a repressed high schoolchemistry teacher who abandoned Catholicism to become a born-again Christian. Middle daughter Carmen shares her father's passion for food but has stifled her dream of owning a restaurant in favor of pursuing a more stable career as a business analyst. Maribel, the youngest, is hip and slightly rebellious.
Frequently present in the Naranjo home are newly divorced family friend Yolanda, her young daughter April, and her visiting mother Hortensia, who has set her sights on Martin and is determined to make him her next husband, unaware his attention is focused on someone else.
Maribel is drawn to handsome Brazilian student, Andy, after her co-worker rejects him and, after they briefly date, she invites him home for dinner, during which she blithely announces she is moving in with him, much to her father's consternation and Andy's shock, since they never had discussed elevating their somewhat casual relationship to this next level. Before long, she is rearranging his small apartment and unintentionally making him increasingly uncomfortable as she imposes herself in his life.
Meanwhile, Leticia finds herself attracted to Orlando Castillo, who coaches baseball at her school, when she begins to receive passionate love letters she believes are from him, unaware they actually were written by her students. Carmen is offered a high-profile job in Barcelona, and half-heartedly agrees to accept it, although soon after her father drives her to the airport she returns home, determined to follow in her father's footsteps and open a restaurant of her own.
Leticia and Orlando elope, Maribel and Andy break up and reunite, Martin marries Yolanda, and everyone gathers for a family meal at Carmen's new restaurant. It is, however, apparent that this family bonds over their love of food.
Cast[]
- Héctor Elizondo as Martin Naranjo
- Jacqueline Obradors as Carmen Naranjo
- Elizabeth Peña as Leticia Naranjo
- Tamara Mello as Maribel Naranjo
- Raquel Welch as Hortensia
- Paul Rodriguez as Orlando Castillo
- Constance Marie as Yolanda
- Marisabel García as April
- Nikolai Kinski as Andy
- Julio Oscar Mechoso as Gomez
- Jude Herrera as Eden
- Ken Marino as Jeff
- Troy Ruptash as Hairdresser
- Louis Crugnali as Catering Assistant
- Joel Joan as Antonio Urgell
- Ulises Cuadra as Snide Student (as Ulysses Cuadra)
- Mark de la Cruz as April's Classmate
- Eli Russell Linnetz as April's Classmate
- Stoney Westmoreland as Baseball Umpire
- Karen Dyer as Rachel
- Anthony C Sena as Chef/Wait Staff