Not even bad in a good way

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

I didn't read the book, so if you've read the book, you might like this movie less than I did. The story is a good folk tale, and gives one insight into some aspects of Latino culture (i.e., traditions & so much more are often passed down through food; the strange traditions regarding family duty, even in the face of common sense). While watching the movie, I suspected the book is better, and I have been told by others that it is. The actor who played John was very exaggerated, although I don't know if that was done on purpose. Further, I had problems with Pedro's initial decision (the big one); as Tita later points out, there seem to have been many other decisions that would have made much more sense. Warning: this is a chick flick! In the end, though, my identity as a hispanic edged out my identity as a manly man, so I consider this movie worth watching, since the story is worth having in your cultural hard-drive.For more reviews and a kickass podcast, check out: www.livemancave.com

I did not think that this was a particularly bad movie because it was able to capture some scenes that i thought would be difficult to do in a movie. The acting in this movie was not great, I found John's character to be creepy and depressing instead of the loving upbeat character I read about. I also thought that the film work was below par and if this movie were in English and released in American movie theaters it would have much more negative criticism. This movie also rushes through many important scenes and does not allow the plot to develop. If someone were to watch this movie without reading the book they would leave the movie extremely confused. Some of the positives in this movie are how they display magical realism in very interesting ways. For example in the beginning of the movie when there is rushing water to represent tears and then they harvest the salt from the tears seemed like it was represented the magical realism very well. Also the actresses who played the sisters did a good job of creating interesting sister- sister relationships. For example how Gertrudis and Tita had a very caring relationship where as the relationship between Rosura and Tita always seemed to be very competitive.

The movie did live up to the book and did not capture the powerful emotions expressed by Tita and Pedro. The plot seemed rushed compared to the book's and not much time was spent on key scenes. During scenes pertaining to the Mexican Revolution, comical music was played which significantly took away from the seriousness of the time period. Though the scenes of magical realism were shot well, they did not seem as powerful as in the book. The director did do a particularly good job with Tita's mental breakdown. Overall I thought that it was decent and would recommend this movie to anyone who found interest in the book despite some of its flaws.

Although this movie is entertaining, it lacks the same in depth emotions evicted by Tita's cooking. The majority of the food is filmed before each scene and then forgotten about until some characters emotions tie into the dish. The music of the Mexican revolution is stereotypical to say the least. John and Pedro are both excellently cast with John portraying the awkward academic very well even down to his last sullen moment as a lonely man. Pedro ignites the "Latin passion" on the screen with every lustful encounter with Tita. Mama Elena is scripted perfectly however her character never makes you hate her as much as any viewer/reader should. In conclusion Like Water for Chocolate is an entertaining film (if you enjoy reading your movies) even without reading the book.