Heavily Hollywoodized; the second part is ridiculous!
Added 7/28/2009
I was so looking forward to watching this movie. I loved the book and have read it many times over the years, but the movie was made when I was really young so I never had a chance to pick it up until recently I found the VHS version in my local library. It ended up being a huge disappointment! By the time I figured out they have combined the daughter and granddaughter into one character, I had completely lost interest in the movie. The plot became ridiculous and does not make any sense. Why would Pedro (and they pronounce the name with heavy American accent even though all the characters were supposed to be Chileans!) hide in a basement while his lover was suffering in the prison for him? It doesn't make any sense. The reconciliation scene between Esteban and Pedro was just weird and completely out of character.
The movie just butchered the book into pieces. If it's only "loosely" based on the book, why even use the same name? I wonder what Allende thinks about this horrendous rendition of her masterpiece. I agree with another user that this movie is a sad reflection of Hollywood's cultural narrow-mindedness.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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I love this film!
Added 6/9/2009
Of course the book is far better than the movie as it usually happens, yet I can't help but love this film and I think the main reason is because it was great and refreshing to see Winona Ryder play a character unlike any other she had done prior to this movie.
In reality this movie should have been made into a miniseries, having other characters such as Clara's excentric uncle who appears at the beginning of the story, the twins and Alba's love interest. Nonetheless, this movie with all its imperfections shall always have a special place in my heart.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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A rewarding film!
Added 1/19/2009
From the touching inspiration of Isabel Allende, this feminine perspective deals about the profound emotional conflicts inside a wealthy family. The film makes a smart narrative ellipsis through threwe generations along seventy years, and shows us those first insights of a little child by then, who is gifted of premonitory visions, who falls in love with the boyfriend of her sister. She foresees an imminent tragedy and lives with this terrible sense of guilt by not having been able to avoid it.
But, through the years, this young boy will become a true wealthy man and love will make the rest. But meanwhile, there's a lot of brilliant secondary plots that enrich the historical vision with absorbing engagement.
Once more, Jeremy Irons and Merrill Streep reencountered again and both head with admirable realism to convey those unsaid feelings. But besides, the film shows us the social environment, its inner contradictions, the conflict of power between this self-exigent man and his sister Ferula (Glenn Close) and the unstoppable love affair (a veiled homage to Romeo and Juliet) among his own daughter (Winona Ryder with her dazzling beauty) and the son of a very humble worker of his farm (Antonio Banderas).
The narrative pulse of Billie August breaths a pastoral poetry, with those arresting landscapes but overall to be able to express and even universalize the provincial environment without falling into commonplaces.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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reconciliation and growth- the "connection between events"- that's what the movie is about
Added 12/29/2006
At least that's what it meant to me. Replace "South America" in all reviews by the word "Chile", because that is where the story belongs in its cut and dry facts. A wealthy family, a Shakespearean love between a peasant's son and a land owner's daughter; betrayal, rage, passion, violence and murder, ghosts (spirits), rebelion and freedom: all these are just some of the ingredients portraid in the movie with a great line up, awsome landscape and fairly good soundtrack. If you ever visit Chile, please see this movie and you'll understand part of the Chilean character and history: under our modern facade, there's still Biancas, Pedros and Truebas.
The movie personally helped me see my own story and find new connections between myself, my family and the culture where I was born and raised: that of Chile's.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Corrections for Synopsis
Added 9/19/2006
Extremely Fantastic Movie! I just happened along this movie on
The IFC Channel, hate to think how many really good movies I miss and have missed.
Please rewrite the synopsis as follows: sentence #2, "The poor Estaban marries Clara and they have (not get) a daughter, Blanca.
Sentence #3, Estaban works hard and earns (not gets) the money to buy.....
After reading the negative reviews on this movie I would like to remind people that the book was 'loosely based' on the novel. I really wonder what the negative reviewers think is a good movie, let me know!
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Heavily Hollywoodized; the second part is ridiculous!
Added 7/28/2009
I was so looking forward to watching this movie. I loved the book and have read it many times over the years, but the movie was made when I was really young so I never had a chance to pick it up until recently I found the VHS version in my local library. It ended up being a huge disappointment! By the time I figured out they have combined the daughter and granddaughter into one character, I had completely lost interest in the movie. The plot became ridiculous and does not make any sense. Why would Pedro (and they pronounce the name with heavy American accent even though all the characters were supposed to be Chileans!) hide in a basement while his lover was suffering in the prison for him? It doesn't make any sense. The reconciliation scene between Esteban and Pedro was just weird and completely out of character.
The movie just butchered the book into pieces. If it's only "loosely" based on the book, why even use the same name? I wonder what Allende thinks about this horrendous rendition of her masterpiece. I agree with another user that this movie is a sad reflection of Hollywood's cultural narrow-mindedness.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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I love this film!
Added 6/9/2009
Of course the book is far better than the movie as it usually happens, yet I can't help but love this film and I think the main reason is because it was great and refreshing to see Winona Ryder play a character unlike any other she had done prior to this movie.
In reality this movie should have been made into a miniseries, having other characters such as Clara's excentric uncle who appears at the beginning of the story, the twins and Alba's love interest. Nonetheless, this movie with all its imperfections shall always have a special place in my heart.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
A rewarding film!
Added 1/19/2009
From the touching inspiration of Isabel Allende, this feminine perspective deals about the profound emotional conflicts inside a wealthy family. The film makes a smart narrative ellipsis through threwe generations along seventy years, and shows us those first insights of a little child by then, who is gifted of premonitory visions, who falls in love with the boyfriend of her sister. She foresees an imminent tragedy and lives with this terrible sense of guilt by not having been able to avoid it.
But, through the years, this young boy will become a true wealthy man and love will make the rest. But meanwhile, there's a lot of brilliant secondary plots that enrich the historical vision with absorbing engagement.
Once more, Jeremy Irons and Merrill Streep reencountered again and both head with admirable realism to convey those unsaid feelings. But besides, the film shows us the social environment, its inner contradictions, the conflict of power between this self-exigent man and his sister Ferula (Glenn Close) and the unstoppable love affair (a veiled homage to Romeo and Juliet) among his own daughter (Winona Ryder with her dazzling beauty) and the son of a very humble worker of his farm (Antonio Banderas).
The narrative pulse of Billie August breaths a pastoral poetry, with those arresting landscapes but overall to be able to express and even universalize the provincial environment without falling into commonplaces.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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