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Like Water for Chocolate (1992)
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Movie Review by Zara 
January 23rd, 2007
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Where Did She Learn How to Dance Like That?
I once went to go see a foreign film with a boyfriend who was mainly attending it to appease me. He was less than thrilled that he was going to have to sit through a chick flick, but even less so when the subtitles began to flash across the bottom of the screen. "You mean I'm going to have to read?" he loudly declared, garnering us dirty looks from the other matinee attendees.
The movie was based on the popular novel of the same name and follows the clandestine love story of Tita and Pedro. According to Mexican tradition, the youngest daughter must care for her mother under her death, and is not allowed to marry. In order to be near his love, Pedro marries her eldest sister, Rosaura, and moves in with the family. There is alluding to the second-born sister, Gertrudis, being a love child from an affair that their mother had. A baby is born to Rosaura and Pedro and is nursed to health by Tita. When tragedy occurs and Tita goes a little mental, she is taken in by the family doctor who is in love with her and happens to be a more stable choice of beaus than Pedro. Jerry Springer guests have nothing on this family!
It sounds like a madhouse and essentially is. While at its core is a love story questioning if it is worthwhile to chase after an intense passionate love that will burn you up in the process, the movie relishes a fantastical sense of humor. The emotions that Tita is experiencing pour into her cooking, which when ingested by her family, make them experience her joy, sorrow and horniness themselves. While women watching this movie will appreciate the psychological questions over love and its costs, men can have a good laugh over the farcical reactions of the characters overwhelmed by Tita's culinary exploits.
What I love best about this movie is that while it is in a language that is foreign to most, the reading of subtitles does not distract from its message. It is vivid and lively, and if you miss a phrase or two, it really won't matter. The actors overindulge in the scenes, which might make a flick in your native tongue seem melodramatic, but in this case is a blessing for those of us who want to watch something out of the norm with a guy who thinks Armageddon was the best love story ever told. Mine, in fact, walked out of the theater grudgingly admitting, "That was pretty good... for a chick flick."
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 | Movie Addict
Mar 30, 2007 8:59 PM
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| Why cannot men appreciate the questions over love and its costs? T I had seen this film before but had fogotten the details. I watched it again tonight and it was just as beautiful as the first time. |
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