Like Water for Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate

I personally think that a movie was very dull, and did not meet the standards that were set by the book. When making this movie I thought that left out many of the important details that were in the book, for example the importance of food which was hardly shown throughout the film. Not one of he recipes were ever said which just made Tita's work seem like mindless acts, and never showed the love that was put into creating each one of the meals. This made the movie seem choppy which made each scene that they showed very short and incomplete. Also it was hard to picture many of the parts because where they supposedly using magical realism just didn't work. By reading this book you get a much better sense of what their family lifestyle was like, and how important food actually was to the family, then watching it on film. After watching this movie i would definitely choose reading the book.

I liked "Like Water for Chocolate" because I enjoy off beat stories, and this certainly is one! It was crazy, but fun! I doubt that many will like it because of the sub-titles, but I did not find them a hinderance to the story. If you are getting tired of Hollywood's "same old-same old" you will like this one!

Okay, I watched this in my Spanish class a couple weeks ago. I was bored to tears through the whole thing. I get magical realism, I even like it a little, but this was just plain stupid. Like, how believable is it that a girl puts her feelings into her cooking? If it's not believable, it has to be interesting, and that is the kind of crap a four-year-old could come up with. I find the whole thing with her sister running away with the general guy to be highly unlikely. It's stupid that Tita didn't just run away from her mother in the first place if she knew all along she was going to defy her. And what normal man marries his girlfriend's sister to become closer to her? And at the end of the movie, when Tita finally has sex with her boyfriend, she eats a match and spontaneously combusts. How lame is that? They're making things we know are impossible look possible, instead of inventing magic and being creative with it, like Tita using her psychic powers to make herself combust or something like that. And the whole thing with the ghost of Tita standing behind her grandniece cooking was all I could stand. The cooking was not all that inspiring. I'm sorry, but it wasn't. That scene added nothing to the movie, and it really needed adding to.

If the analogy between food and sex has to be taken to the letter (as the directory desperately and didactically tries to tell us), I'd say that the movie is quite dull and fails to "reach" that spot. There's no development whatsoever in the characters, no blossoming, no flavour history, no smell track: it lacks all the elements that it tries to underline; the only effective character played by the cast is the wicked mother. Too sanitised, unengaging, boring, pathetic. I haven't read the book, but I'm sure the movie has very much spoiled a good book. Mexico has produced many good movies, this movie doesn't do honour to the Mexican filmography. So much for those who think that the movie is good just because it made it to the US box offices.

Unless there is some unwritten law that dictates that ALL foreign imports should receive not just a favourable review but also the unflinching adoration and recommendation of movie critics, I simply don't understand all the fuss that was generated about LWFC. If you want to see a really good movie about women, food, love and life, please skip this one and watch Babette's Feast instead. The tragedy of LWFC is in the fact that its story and characters are too idiotic even to watch on the Satellite of Love. This turkey should come with a warning : If forced to watch, fake a headache and go to bed early.

Like Water for Chocolate is a masterpiece in that it conveys the essence of our ancestors' knowledge forgotten in the fast pace of modern living. It centers around the wonder of cooking: a sacred ritual, not a boring chore; and when done right, with love, it creates magic. Raised and taught to cook by her old Mayan nanny, Tita (exquisitely performed by Lumi Cavazos) masters the near-magical ability of transferring her love and other feelings into her creations passed into one who eats them. The characters‘ senses are so refined, they enable everyone involved in this family drama to be tuned to the finest nuances of their world, opening the door to non-material pleasures. Rich with metaphors, their language reflects the skills of keen and sometimes humorous observation. The story brings our perception to a different level - as its characters' empathy borders on miracles and magic, and things we only sense and feel become real. Tita's virgin breasts, feeling `like dough kneaded' by strong hands, turn into mature breasts under Pedro's burning eyes (to later start lactating) - their glances, just like her food, becoming the means of communicating their forbidden love. Yet all magic becomes wasted in the face of a man's choice. The Universe may scream into Pedro's ears about the path he is to take, but if he doesn't follow it, no magic can save him. We witness the story of a fatal attraction between two soulmates, whose passion, confined by an enslaving family tradition, lights up everyone around them... But for themselves, it's so intense, it literally engulfs the lovers in flames. Did they have an alternative? It is for the viewer to figure out. You may ponder, however, over the young doctor's Indian grandmother saying that `each of us is born with a box of matches inside but we can't strike them all by ourselves; we need oxygen and a candle to help. The oxygen would come from a lover's breath; the candle could be a food, a melody, a word, a caress, or a sound...' He remembers her warning, though, that `it is important to light the matches one at a time' because otherwise the heat generated would produce too dazzling a brilliance. Thus the wisdom of the ages, just like the power, is passed here through women and the men who are in tune with them. And the intense interactions between the colorful characters of five generations extend to dead family members who continue to counsel or despise the living. When coming into her room with Pedro after 22 years of their waiting for each other, Tita is greeted by her long deceased nanny lighting her bed and the room with multiple candles. And the consequences of one's actions carries on beyond time - as each person continues her path notwithstanding death. Hot yellow-red colors intermixed with dense lighting rekindle one's passion for living and appreciation for the gifts and mysteries of the Mexican land. The magic realism becomes a way of living in a culture connected with its heritage. I recommend Like Water for Chocolate to anyone who feels like he/she is lacking color and passion in life - if watched with an open mind and heart, this beautiful and enigmatic film will stir your senses and imagination and light up your box of matches!

I expected to like this from what I was told by friends, but it failed as a piece of magical realism and ends up being both goofy and boring. Filled with disgusting offhand comments, bizarre circumstances and completely unlikable characters, I was wondering what people saw in this. It is pathetic when a women who runs down the road naked, becomes a prostitute and then later turns into a general in the Mexican army is the most realistic character. The rest are just one note characters who never develop into anything. In other movies which use food as a device, the food serves to bring people together and express something about the characters who made it. In eat, Drink, Man, Woman it is food that holds the family together but is just eye-candy without real flavor until the family is allowed to grow naturally then it turns into a feast. In The Big Night, the fantastic dishes that emerge from the kitchen are not only a great feast but also express the joys that hope can bring. In this movie, the food is only a symbolic device. It fails to nourish anything.

Like Water for Chocolate is a wonderful romantic movie set in Mexico at the turn of the 20th century during the Mexican revolution. It is the story of a woman named Tita and the love of her life Pedro. When Tita is young, Pedro asks Tita's mother for her permission to marry Tita; however, due to the fact that Tita is the youngest daughter, family tradition bans her from marrying and she must remain unwed to care of her mother. Pedro then marries Rosaura, Tita's sister, and tells his father that he is only marrying Rosaura to be closer to Tita. Very upset by all of this and her loveless situation, Tita infuses her passion and love for Pedro into her food and thus, when people consume her cooking they become intensely aroused, at one point resulting in her sister Gertrudis getting lustfully swept away by a revolutionary soldier. Tita's mother sees that she and Pedro are becoming quite close and so she sends Pedro and Rosaura off to go and live in San Antonio. Tita becomes very depressed and even more depressed when she hears that Pedro and Rosaura's son Roberto has died; so depressed that her mother sends her to an asylum. At the asylum, Tita is brought back to health by a doctor named John Browne. No sooner does Tita begin to recover when her mother is injured by rebel soldiers in a raid and she is forced to return home to her ranch. When Tita returns home, her mother is very bitter and refuses to eat thinking that Tita's food is poisoned and soon dies. After Tita's mother dies, Tita is allowed to marry and the doctor, John Browne, proposes. John asks Pedro to bless the marriage and when talking to Tita about this Pedro lustfully takes her virginity. The movie continues with the main premise of who Tita will choose to spend her life with, Pedro or John Browne and her battle against her mother's ghost. The movie interestingly depicts revolutionary Mexico and the soldiers involved. The Mexican Revolution was mainly between supporter of Díaz, very conservative, and supporters of Madero and Zapata who believed in land reform and more help to the indigenous. The fighting between the two factions continued quite intensely until February 9, 1913 when President Wilson sent Madero a message saying that his fighting in Mexico City was dangerous to U.S. citizens and property. Madero hated this foreign intervention, but Huerta was placed in power to quell the fighting. Huerta was well liked by the aristocracy, the capitalists, and church but was hated by Zapata, Pancho Villa, Carranza and Obregón who led the opposition right after his induction as president. The fighting then continued and later even began within the liberal faction, but died down when Carranza was named President. The movie does a good job showing the different types of soldiers, those with Díaz and those with Madera and Zapata. Tita's sister Gertrudis runs off with a revolutionary and returns later as a general in charge of an army of fifty five men. Tita's mother was harmed by soldiers as well, but a more violent type of soldier. The movie does an excellent job illustrating the uncertainty of the period and the different roles people played. The history is accurate, but I thought it might be a bit helpful for their to be a little bit more background for it could be hard to someone who does not know about the Mexican Revolution to understand what is happening. All in all, the acting was very good, the storyline was enticing, and the cinematography was excellent. It is definitely a movie worth watching, both as entertainment and as something educational. Rating this movie out of ten points, ten being the highest, I give it a ten easily. It is a very enjoyable movie.

Scenes of incredible beauty and humor. This film appeals to all of humankind's tastes (visual, intellectual, gustatory, sexual, etc.) It is one of the greatest romantic comedies showing the lives, values and beliefs of another culture ever presented as a gift to the American public. Be aware though that it is not an experience that will appeal to everyone. You won't enjoy it if you don't love food, have an imagination and understand that daytime soaps are not art.