Dreadfully Boring

An Exercise In Nonsense

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

In most movies, it is allowed and forgiven adultery for men, but If women did it they are killed such as this movie. Whyyyyyyyy? This film did not any reaction this prejudiceIf a thing is wrong, it will be bad for all not only women.If a thing is wrong, it will be bad for all not only women.In most movies, it is allowed and forgiven adultery for men, but If women did it they are killed such as this movie. Whyyyyyyyy? This film did not any reaction this prejudiceIn most movies, it is allowed and forgiven adultery for men, but If women did it they are killed such as this movie. Whyyyyyyyy? This film did not any reaction this prejudiceIn most movies, it is allowed and forgiven adultery for men, but If women did it they are killed such as this movie. Whyyyyyyyy? This film did not any reaction this prejudice

This is a strangely interesting film, rich-textured and unpredictable ~ more of an art film than a mainstream one. It is dramatic and well-acted. It is at times somewhat disorganized and mystifying. The direction and/or editing could be smoother. The female lead is somewhat young for this role. It would have been well to use an older character made-up to look younger in the earlier scenes ~ or to have used a different actress for the two eras. Certainly the reference to cholera in the title leads one to think that illness, death, and separation would be a major theme, but it is more of a peripheral theme in this story. In some ways it was lacking, with some scenes and themes seeming disconnected; but I would watch it again (and need to, in fact, to clear up some odd points). Worth watching.

Part epistolary romance, part case study of a furtive and nerdy Casanova, Love in the Time of Cholera (El amor en los tiempos del cólera) reveals a male protagonist's optimistic and cynical perspectives of love. Portrayed with eloquence, charm and emotional complexity by Javier Bardem - who comes from a long line of thespians in Spain - Florentino Ariza surveys love's progression as an incurable disease. Hence, the cleverness of the film's title, for cholera during the periods depicted in Love in the Time of Cholera brought death quickly whereas love festers indefinitely.In one of the most poignant moments of the 2007 film, a middle-aged Florentino utters to his dementia-ravaged mother: "You confuse cholera with love." Florentino's longing for the beautiful Fermina Daza was so intense, that his mother believed cholera to be the blame for his frequent bouts of vomiting and melancholia. That Gabriel García Márquez, author of the 1985 novel El amor en los tiempos del cólera, upon which the epic film is based, likens love to a terminal disease is an apt comparison. Such a romantic concept reverberated (with no small debt to John Barry's sweeping score) in Jeannot Szwarc's 1980 film Somewhere in Time, adapted unfaithfully from the 1975 novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson. In Somewhere in Time, a playwright (portrayed by Christopher Reeve) is described as having "died of love" after obsessing over a photo portrait of Belle Epoque actress Elise McKenna (portrayed by Jane Seymour) and willing himself back to her time in order to meet and fall in love with her.In both films - Love in the Time of Cholera and Somewhere in Time - the viewer is challenged to redefine time beyond a cold, scientific certainty and to explore the interrelatedness of memories, emotions and metaphysics. Without relying on the special effects that action, sci-fi and horror flicks have conditioned our minds to accept as a requisite for magical occurrences, "Gabo" - as García Márquez is affectionately known in Latin America - asks us only to open the four chambers of our hearts, figuratively speaking. He implores us to feel the love (Lion King reference unintentional) that makes life worth living despite the social and economic chaos that often surrounds and threatens to desensitize us.Love is the unseen but omniscient character in Love in the Time of Cholera, Somewhere in Time and another period film: Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) from director Alfonso Arau and adapted from the same-titled novel by Laura Esquivel. Esquivel's story is enchanting because it shouts from the rooftops that love holds the power to heal the wounded hearts of distanced lovers - whether the pair is separated by geography, disapproving parents, envious third parties, or any combination thereof. In fact, in Como agua para chocolate, when forbidden lovers Tita (Lumi Cavazos) and Pedro (Marco Leonardi) finally come together, Marco's voice booms: "TE AMO!" What follows in the barn is a literal combustion. Well, the fact that Tita had swallowed nearly an entire box of matches prior to their consummation was an eerie clue.Another dose of "magical realism" - an artistic technique first recognized in American visual art of the mid-20th century and later employed in progressive literature by Latin American writers in the '60s and '70s - that transferred well from Esquivel's story to Arau's picture was the series of haunting sequences which result from Tita psychologically battling her destiny. Tita's fate may have been to become a spinster, but with Pedro's sensual aid she finds her way. As the youngest daughter, she is fated to take care of her widowed mother, Mamá Elena (Regina Torné), until her death. But when Tita reciprocates Pedro's flirtation to the point of infusing eroticism into the scrumptious dishes that she prepares for the family (which expands after her sister Rosaura's marriage to Pedro), a curse about which Mamá Elena warned is cast.Speaking of Como agua para chocolate, much in the way Pedro professes "amor" from the top of his lungs in that torrid barn scene mentioned earlier in this review, hoodlum-Romeo Antone a/k/a "Tony" (Richard Beymer) in West Side Story painfully shouts his beloved's name, "MARIA!" on an urban street. In the first half of West Side Story, however, Tony envisions only love's promise, not its sometimes tragic consequences. The agonizing truth of the controversial affair between Tony and María (Natalie Wood) comes across as brutally honest as an admission in a long-avoided confessional booth when the youths perform "Somewhere." And María's divinity, in Tony's eyes, rings as true as a cathedral bell when his dubbed voice sings the ballad "María": "The most beautiful sound I've ever heard, María, María, María ... Say it loud and there's music playing. Say it soft and it's almost like praying."Holiness takes a holiday in the motives of Florentino, however. Though he frequently refers to Fermina as his "crowned goddess" to anyone willing to listen, he indulges in mucho carnality throughout Love in the Time of Cholera. He is deliberate in going about a purely sexual catharsis in order to alleviate emotional pain caused by Fermina's rejection. When he first spoke of his love for her, Fermina felt honored, but after a while, enough is enough!The rape of Florentino (in his 20s, presumably) is presented by director Newell and screenwriter Ronald Harwood as a misogynistic justification for Florentino's debauchery. After Florentino beds down (with desks, walls and leafy forests sometimes replacing mattresses as props) more than 600 women well into his 70s, he loses the viewers' sympathy with the abruptness of a Victrola's needle skidding across a vinyl record.A second chance at love often requires much suffering on the part of the one whom love was denied. In that sense of murky optimism, Love in the Time of Cholera elevates love to the most sublime affliction. "Gabo" probably would agree with that diagnosis.

Although the film managed to cram most of the novel's story, it left much more to be desired from the actors. Aside from Benjamin Bratt marvelously playing the part of Dr. Juvenal Urbino, the supporting cast members did a much better job of making me believe their character than the main cast did. There is a fine line between being passionate and being pathetic, which Javier Bardem did a perfect job of crossing. Not to mention John Leguizamo's lame attempt at a Spanish accent.This film might be perfect for the person who has not read the novel and is just interested in watching a film for the sake of watching.I don't believe justice was done to the Dr. or to the love shared between Fermina and Florentino. A deeper understanding of each characters background would have been satisfactory.I suggest people read the book and then read it again because this film is a waste of time.