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LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA Send This Review to a Friend
Fans of Gabriel Garcia Márquez’s best-selling novel, “Love in the Time of Cholera,” will be eager to see if the film adaptation does it justice. While it is almost impossible for any film to capture the stylistic flavor of a writer’s language, screenwriter Ronald Harwood, director Mike Newell and a colorful cast have given us an entertaining, deeply felt film version that reflects the sweep of the engrossing story and the ambiance of the time and setting in Colombia. Care has clearly been taken to keep faith with the author’s achievement.
In this tale of love that must wait from youth in the late 19th century to old age to be requited, Javier Bardem plays Florentino Ariza, who is smitten by the sight of a beautiful young woman, Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), and starts to woo her But her father, Lorenzo Daza (John Leguizamo) refuses to let her marry Florentino because he seems to have no economic prospects and lacks the social status Lorenzo expects of a son-in-law. The irate father spirits her away to break up the romance.
Florentino is grief-stricken and can’t get Fermina out of his mind. When she finally returns and sees him in the street, she suddenly is no longer taken with him and believes all is wrong. Florentino never loses his ardor, but meanwhile, having been introduced to the pleasures of sex elsewhere, he makes one meaningless conquest after another, jotting them all down in a notebook. Ultimately, the lifetime number is well over 600.
Fermina is wooed by Dr. Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt), whose status pleases her father, and they have a long marriage, but Fermina is hurt by his unfaithfulness. When he dies, Florentino, still unwelcome, seizes the opportunity to pursue Fermina ardently anew, although now they are both elderly.
The plot outline doesn’t begin to convey the richness, the charm and the panorama of all that passes during the years. It is a pleasure to see Bardem, in contrast to the vicious villain he plays in the current “No Country for Old Men,” as a love-smitten, life-long suitor. He does an extraordinary job and must age convincingly. Mezzogiorno, an Italian actress, gives a glowing performance, and she too has the challenge of aging convincingly, with both getting a huge assist from the make-up department.
Bratt does an excellent job as the doctor husband, and Catalina Sandino Moreno, the Colombian actress who won an Oscar nomination for her work in “Maria Full of Grace,” brings strength to the at first saucy role of Hildebranda Sanchez. The large cast also includes Hector Alizondo, Fernanda Montenegro and Liev Schreiber.
Much credit is due cinematographer Alfonso Beato, whose work gives the film a stunning, atmospheric quality, with location filming in Colombia providing a convincing background to the passionate story. Beato’s credits included the very different film “The Queen,” and he has also worked on films with Pedro Almodovar.
“Love in the Time of Cholora” is the kind of novelistic tale that filmgoers often seek in contrast to so much that is around. This is a film in which one can become thoroughly engrossed and enormously enjoyable even though it is no substitute for reading the richer novel. A New Line Cinema release.
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