Like Water for Chocolate

Rating:
Summary: For God's sake!
Review: The movie's great, but I wanted to reply to a customer who obviously doesn't know about filmmaking. He/she states that the DVD version, because it's on widescreen, "cuts off" some picture that you can see in the formatted VHS edition. It's entirely the opposite; formatted editions cut off from the ORIGINAL widescreen frames (they cut off the sides to fit the 4:3 ratio TV screen). The bars at the top and bottom of a regular TV screen when you view a letterboxed movie does not mean that part of the frame was cut off, but that the aspect ratio of the original larger frame is too wide to fit on that screen and thus can only fit that way, leaving dark empty bars.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning film on cultural expectations versus love
Review: This film mesmerized me when I first saw it in a theater in El Paso, Texas, in 1993. This is a mystical tale of a young girl in early 20th century Mexico, forced to suppress her love for a boy to meet cultural expectations that the youngest daughter remain unmarried to care of her aging mother. Instead, she channels her passions into her cooking, with often hilarious effects on those who dine with her. I made the mistake of renting this movie dubbed in English, and was disappointed at the emotionless reading by English-speaking actors. Be sure to pick up this Spanish language-English subtitled version to get the original passionate portrayals of the characters.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning Mexican movie spoiled by emotionless dubbing
Review: Like Water for Chocolate is a stunning movie about an early 20th century Mexican girl who suppresses her love for a boy to meet cultural expectations that a family's youngest daughter remain unmarried to care for her aging mother. Forced to repress her love, she channels her passion into cooking for the family. The stylistic features of this movie reminded me of the filmmaking of Fellini. This particular version of the movie was spoiled, in my opinion, by some rather emotionless reading of the parts by the persons hired to dub the film in English. Don't be disappointed -- get the Spanish language, English subtitled version and enjoy the original passion of the film. The Spanish language version rates two more stars, for a total of five.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning Mexican movie spoiled by emotionless dubbing
Review: Like Water for Chocolate is a stunning movie about an early 20th century Mexican girl who supresses her love for a boy to meet cultural expectations that the youngest daughter in the family remains unmarried to care for her aging mother. Forced to repress her love, she channels her passion into cooking for the family. The stylistic features of this movie reminded me of the filmaking of Fellini. This particular version of the movie was spoiled, in my opinion, by some rather emotionless reading of the parts by the persons hired to dub the film in English. Don't be disappointed -- get the Spanish language, English subtitled version and enjoy the original passion of the film. The Spanish language version rates two more stars, for a total of five.

Rating:
Summary: good, but ...
Review: The movie and its theme are excellent entertainment. The DVD unfortunately is edited in wide screen, cutting off some of the image that is included in the VHS version.

Rating:
Summary: Superb - One of the Great Foreign Language Films of Our Time
Review: A thrilling, intoxicating masterpiece, "Like Water for Chocolate" will leave you hungry, happy and hung over with its surreal vision and unforgettable performances. Some of the film's charm lies in its uncompromising vision of what it must be like to be a poor, Mexican woman, surrounded by angry sisters and petty jealousies. The food is a miracle of texture and authenticity that makes the book a recipe lover's dream. But the spiritual aspects of the movie take it someplacve else altogether....by tying food and unseen forces together, the author and director have fashioned love as a cycle of human emotion coupled with betrayal and passion. Believers and non-believers alike are asked to suspend judgement and just BE with this movie, for it raises issues and themes rarely imagined or acheived on film. A few sequences are startling - such as a wedding party where every guest is gastronimically infected by a soup that is stewed with the tears of our protagonist, and they all end up regurgitating the mixture, and in the end, understanding that true love should not be gambled away for money or superiority. Another sequence, where the middle daughter Gertudis, is literally kidnapped by a horse riding gunslinger while she sits alone in an outhouse doing her business, is hysterical, yet also painful to watch, because it symbolizes the woman's need for free choice in a world where men have so much of the power. Besides, any couple who has eloped or married without their parent's blessings will quickly make the connection to their own experience. If you can keep up with the subtitles, I'd advise against a dubbed version, for in its Spanish - eloquent, funny and dramatic - the film c aptures its truest form of communication. And food as metaphor - used in other terrific fims like "Babette's Feast" - has never been presented in such an awe inspiring manner. This is a feast to be savored every step of its delectible way.

Rating:
Summary: Like Water for Chocolate
Review: I love this movie it was well writen. Nicely directed, the actors were marvelous.

Rating:
Summary: Even My Husband Cried!
Review: I have to say that this is one of my all time favorite movies. I highly reccomend that is watched with the subtitles on. It takes something away from the authenticity of the characters to watch it dubbed in English. After reading the subtitles for a few minutes, you quickly become used to it.
This is a mystical love story. Loves energy knows no bounds and even expresses itself through the food that is prepared and eaten. It is sad to watch Tita cry into her sister's wedding cake batter, but rewarding to watch all the guests who eat remember loves they have lost and unknowingly share in her anguish. This is truly a remarkable film!

Rating:
Summary: SOMETHING DELICIOUS
Review: This much loved Mexican tale is at once original, vibrant, sensual, funny, and passionate. The premise is simple: a girl, Tita, loves a man (although I cannot think of his character's name now) from the time she is young. He is also desperately in love with her. Tita is mistreated by her mother who insists that Tita's place in the family and in life is to never wed and to take care of her, and therefore prefers the charm of being in the kitchen with her grandmother. Tita learns all the secrets of working magic in the kitchen. Eventually Tita's beloved sister runs away, and the remaining sister ends up marrying the man who is Tita's one true love. This makes Tita desperately sad (and her sadness magically ends up in the food she cooks for the wedding party), but eventually she realises that her man only married Tita's sister in order to be close to her. At some point Tita's mother dies, and this creates a lot of problems for Tita. Throughout the film, Tita's culinary creations reflect the person herself-her sadness, her love, her beauty, her revenge, and so on. The film shows the magic inherent in everything Tita touches. Of course, at some point Tita leaves (if I recall she got very ill-perhaps emotionally ill). Tita ends up marrying a man and having a child. And when her child grows up, he falls in love with and marries the child of Tita's sister and Tita's one true love (the sister's husband). The ending of the film is otherworldly and despite its fantastic elements, very romantic.

Rating:
Summary: Like Water For Chocolate
Review: I have seen this movie at least a dozon times. They way food describes the emotions of the charctors give great imagination to one watching the film. Two obvious soul mates unable to be together and there triumph over the dilema. Amazing.If you think the film describes emotions try the book. No time to read get it on Book On Tape.