jm10701
This movie requires the viewer to accept an absurdity that I'm simply unable to accept. The supposed family tradition that forbids the youngest daughter's marrying so that she can devote her whole life to caring for her mother is totally unbelievable.The tradition itself is stupid enough, but the fact that the daughter just meekly accepts such capricious and despicable treatment, when there's a houseful of servants to cater to the mother's every whim, makes the condition even more absurd and the spineless daughter totally unsympathetic. Who cares what happens to a person with so little self-respect?Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but I am unable to force myself to swallow such a preposterous contrivance just to make this silly story work.
kenjha
The story of a Mexican family is recounted, spanning decades. This is an interesting fable that manages to turn cooking into a sensual experience. It is helped by beautiful cinematography and a fine score. The acting is generally good, with Cavazos giving a standout performance as a young woman who is controlled by a domineering mother. Unfortunately, the latter is portrayed as so one-dimensionally evil that she makes Cinderalla's stepmother seem like a candidate for Mother of the Year. The story moves in fits and starts, lingering too long on some scenes but then abruptly skipping ahead by a decade. Director Arau is known mainly as an actor, but he does a fine job of creating an evocative atmosphere.
jaredmgoldberg
After having read the book from which this is adapted, this movie deserves not the praise it received. First and foremost, the movie completely misconstrues the message of the book. The book stresses the importance of FOOD, and how the food is Tita's method of both coping with her realities and her method of communicating the feelings that are being suppressed by Mama Elena. In the movie, the beauty of the food is drowned by a disgusting, almost stereotypical soap-opera-like drama. The acting is cheesy, at best, and the feelings between Tita and Pedro are poorly conveyed as love. Rather, they are portrayed by a simple, unforgiving lust. Also, the last scene was TERRIBLE. The last scene is supposed to contain a grand crescendo of feelings that ultimately lead to Pedro's, and the Tita's, deaths. However, it simply appears that Pedro has an orgasm and then faints. There is absolutely no way, without having prior knowledge of the story, to correlate between this scene and the matches theory. Also, the way in which Tita days poorly illustrates the match theory. It seems like she just eats the matches and then dies. By this, however, the intense emotion required to kindle the inner matches is just not there. By its lonesome, this movie receives a 3 (soap opera quality crap).
cbrady-brady94
In my opinion, this movie was rather mediocre. It just seemed to be a soap opera with magical realism thrown in as an added bonus. Although the book is well written, the movie doesn't do it justice, just like most other movies made from books. Though there was an attempt to convey the perfection of the meals prepared by Tita, it really didn't work at all. Such things can't be described through pictures. Also the effect of Titas cooking on the rest of the family lost its romance and ended up just looking comical in the film. About 30 minutes into the film I was already bored. What bored me was not so much the story, but the way it was executed and played out. Also, if I had not read the book before seeing the movie, I would have been very confused. They throw too many unexplained things into the movie, that also occur in the book, but they work in the book because the book gives you context. All in all, I would say read the book (which is quite good) and skip the movie.
AD
