Rating: 
Summary: One of the worst adaptaitions I have ever seen!
Review: I have not seen a film quite as appaling as this one in a long time, I am Chilean and a huge fan of the book "La casa de los espiritos" (The house of the spirits), which is beautifly written, with some of the most truthfull and thoughtfull characters I have come across.
The film however is very different. To start with the characters are meant to be Chliean not British, and fair enough If they were unable to use an accent (or perhaps latin american actors) they could have at least made a respectable attempt at the names, hearing them all pronounce "Alba", "Olba" was infurriating. To keep with the cast problem the charaters of "Nivea" and "Severo Del Valle" were the two most stereotypical middle class white american parents, with a hint of the brady bunch, Nivea was more like the Mmother in "American Beauty" than a revolutionary socialist and women's rights activist, and such a passionate lover that she has given birth 15 times!
The characters were also changed and blended together changing them entirly and destrying their originality and thought making them into something dull and annoying.
The horrifying coup of 73 was perfectly covered in the book no romantic notions, just the horrendos reality, the film attempts to show a supposed torture scene with Winona Ryder, though there is nothing wrong with her acting the pitiful display of screams and a few blows soon followed by her release was just the slightest bit unrealistic, as the chance of release was about 5 to 1, and the torture sessions consited on slightly more than a few blows.
In short the film was an overly romantic, corny and pathetic attempt to sum up the book, to be honest the entire thing was greatly amusing.
Very disapointing
Rating: 
Summary: AN OUSTANDING MULTI-GENERATIONAL FAMILY SAGA...
Review: I love this movie! It has a stellar cast, who give top notch performances. How can you go wrong with Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Antonio Banderas, Winona Ryder, Vanessa Redgrave, and Armin Muehler-Stahl? The answer is that you can't. It is a riveting piece of film making, based loosely upon Isabelle Allende's wonderful book of the same name.The film delicately captures the mysticism of the book, rendering those scenes in which such is the focal point highly believable. This is no mean feat given the subject matter. The story takes place in South America. The saga begins in the nineteen thirties. Vanessa Redgrave and Armin Muehler-Stahl play the wealthy and liberal parents of two daughters, Rosa and Clara Del Valle. Rosa is the beautiful, older daughter. Clara, played by Meryl Streep's real life daughter, is a lovely child with exceptional, psychic gifts. Jeremy Irons plays the part of Esteban Trueba, an impoverished young man in love with Rosa. Vowing to make his fortune in order to marry her and provide her with the comforts to which she is accustomed, he succeeds in making his fortune. He loses Rosa, however, before being able to marry her, when she drinks poisoned wine intended for her liberal party father. Esteban, broken hearted, leaves with his fortune and buys an estancia, where he sternly rules with an iron fist over the peasants who work the land for him. They obsequiously refer to him as "Patron". He takes what he wants, even the women, with the expected result. He has a bastard son whom he does not acknowledge. Esteban has a spinster sister, Ferla, well acted by Glenn Close, who, for the past twenty years, has lived a grim existence in the city with their ailing mother, whom she has taken care of. When their mother dies, Esteban, now a bitter and lonely man, returns to the city from his estancia to attend his mother's funeral. In doing so, he spots Clara, who is now all grown up and ethereally portrayed by the very talented Meryl Streep. Not wasting a moment, he goes to her home. She, luminous, and mystical, already knows that he is there to ask for her hand in marriage and happily accepts. After all, she has loved him ever since she first saw him all those years ago. Clara lovingly embraces his sister, Ferla, into the bosom of her househould, when they move to her Esteban's estancia. Ferla blossoms from a bitter old maid into a companionable and pleasant woman, under Clara's warmth. Esteban and Clara eventually have a child, Blanca, who grows up playing with Pedro, the son of the estancia's indigenous indian foreperson. When Esteban discovers this, he sends Blanca away to boarding school. He does not want his daughter fraternizing with the peasants. Clara, loving and pure of heart, is his exact opposite. When their daughter finally grows up and returns home from school, she knows that the independent Blanca, well played by Winona Ryder, has fallen in love with her childhood playmate, Pedro, passionately portrayed by Antonio Banderas. Esteban hates Pedro, as Pedro is a liberal inciting the peasants to unionize and demand their rights, whipping them into a frenzy against the "Patron", or so Esteban sees it. He drives Pedro off his land. He also drives Ferla off, as he believes her to have unatural feelings for his wife, Clara. Possessive to a fault, he is consumed by jealousy. Clara and Esteban have a fight over his cruelties, and she finally leaves him, taking Blanca with her to the Del Valle family home in the city. Meanwhile, life goes on. Blanca, pregnant by Pedro, has his child, believing that Pedro has been killed by her father. Esteban, representing the wealthy, becomes senator. He reigns for years, until the liberals win power. When they do, however, their tenure is short lived, as a militairy coup sets up a reign of terror and his old sins come home to roost. Meanwhile, Blanca discovers that Pedro is alive, and they joyously hook up again. When Blanca is picked up as a political dissident and tortured for her political views, Esteban, old and broken, is now just a bit player in a larger arena. Too late, he tries to right some wrongs. Some of the wrongs, however, can never be righted. This is a magnificent, multi-generational family epic, that holds the viewer in its thrall. While it only loosely follows Isabelle Allende's wonderful book of the same name, it is a winner in its own right. It has something for everyone, as it deals with human nature, as well as the complex emotions, forces, and events that shape one. The film is about a family struggling to find its place in our ever changing world, and the relationships that each member of that family forges. It is a rich and vibrant tapestry, which succeeds in capturing the viewer.
Rating:
Summary: A BAD MOVIE UNLIKE THE BOOK
Review: I must start this review but saying that the book is a masterpiece, an excellent novel, where we can read and live the words of the author, Isabel Allende.
In the movie, I regret to say, fail to capture the magic of the book.
Unfortunately the Writer/Director was not able to transmit into the film the vivid story, essence and the true mining of what this book as all about.
There are great performances in this DVD, although, I will highly recommend, if you are willing to spend your money, you might as well get the hard cover instead of this terrible adaptation of a magnificent novel.
Rating:
Summary: Very Powerful Story
Review: I really loved this movie. I saw it a long time ago when it first came out in the theaters and it has become one of my favorites. After viewing the movie I went and bought the book, which is also excellent but wanders a bit more than the movie as is to be expected. I don't really understand why this movie was not well liked. Give it a chance! It's worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh the pain the pain
Review: I was so willing to give this movie a chance. I was so willing to spend the entire movie remembering parts of the book that I loved. I was so disappointed. First off - it's a lousy movie. Vincent Gallo is creepy and Banderas is a great actor regardless but Jeremy Irons, Glen Close and Meryl Streep have the Laurence Olivier syndrome, ie. great actors in a bad movie hamming it up. Winona Ryder is just awful and she hasn't been a decent actress since Heathers but in this role she's truly horrid as this role calls for some inner turmoil and frustration and she just kind of whines a lot. Second - if you read the book you will wonder at how awful they could make it. The daughter and the granddaughter become one character which completely undercuts the whole grandfather mellows over time aspect of the book. Besides that the daughter and the granddaughter are such great characters that NEITHER should be played by Wynona Ryder much less both of them. The Meryl Streep character which is mysterious and ethereal in the book is merely a pain in the movie. The Jeremy Irons character becomes a charactiture and his change at the end of the movie is completely unbelievable. The revolutionary leader has a personality and a mission and in the movie he's merely the pretty boy that Winona Ryder has sex with. The only character that seems marginally correct is the Vincent Gallo creepy dictator pawn character and he's even relatively lifeless. And I don't even remember that awful Glen Close character from the book much less the confessional scene where Close is getting the priest all hot & bothered with describing her brother having sex. By the time Vincent Gallo beats up Winona Ryder or Jeremy Irons beats up Meryl Streep you just wish someone would come through and beat everyone associated with the movie over and over again. I would even buy the director's cut if there was an hour of everyone being beaten including the director and the screenwriter, ESPECIALLY the director and the screenwriter.
Rating: 
Summary: Trying to hurry scope is a mistake
Review: I'm glad that I bought this film, but I don't often pull it out to watch. It's like eating a finger sandwich when you're really hungry, it just leaves you wanting more and ticked off at yourself for not taking the time to fix a more satisfying meal! I love Meryl Streep, but she's miscast here as the intuitive, sensitive wife of Jeremy Irons, and when she stops speaking to him near the end of the film, all you can wonder is, why did it take her so long?? HOWEVER, Winona Ryder and Antonio's love rising above the political climate makes the film a worthwhile one to have.
Rating:
Summary: All Star Cast in an Unknown Movie
Review: Meryl, Antonio, Jeremy, Winona, and Glenn. You can't get a more impressive cast. Yet, not many people have seen this movie. Based on Isabel Allende's novel, 'The House of the Spirits' charts the epic course of one family's tumultuous relationships in an unrelenting world. Meryl plays 'Clara' a clairvoyant who, as a young girl, stops speaking when she fails to predict her sister's death. But finds her voice again in her courtship with Esteban. Her marriage to Esteban (Jeremy Irons) is stormy and challenged because of his cruel ambitions. Their daughter (Winona) grows to distrust her father and defy him in love and politics. And, Esteban's spinster sister (Glenn Close) yearns for Clara's friendship and kindness, until Esteban throws her out to die alone. The women are very powerful in this movie, even in death. They are haunting, all knowing, and forgiving in their passions. I found it to be quite an inspirational film. A small treasure. Try 'Like Water for Chocolate' for the same kind of passionate altruism and feminine insight.
Rating:
Summary: Superb!
Review: No words. Just see it (you''l regret if you don't watch it!). Great performance from ALL actors, Superb direction, Awesome scenario (mainly in Portugal!)... YOU'LL LOVE IT - GUARANTEED!
Rating:
Summary: Dishwater
Review: Ponderous, pandering and dull, THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS wastes an amazing cast of great actors on what can only be called a bad couple of hours. The very thought of Jeremy Irons, Vanessa Redgrave and Meryl Streep wasting six months of their lives only to produce this meandering flop is beyond me. The performances are fine, but the script their given to work with is lifeless. It is, I think, a film which takes itself way too seriously; at no point is there substance to back up the self-reverence.
Rating:
Summary: Not the epic intended.
Review: Poorly adapted version of Isabella Allende's excellent novel. Meryl Streep is irritatingly ethereal as the book's clairvoyant protaganist. Jeremy Irons is by no means a convincing latino. The movie edits out a lot of the books good matierial, but still seems strangely tedious. This is only worth watching if you want to watch Vincent Gallo beat the tar out of Winona Ryder.
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