Love in the Time of Cholera (R)
Sensual epic romance isn't as magical onscreen.
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Seen the movie?
Movie details
- Studio: New Line Cinema, New Line Cinema
- Directed By: Mike Newell
- Cast: Benjamin Bratt, Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno
- Running Time: 138 minutes
- Release Date: 11/15/2007
- Video/DVD Release Date: 03/17/2008
- Genre: Drama
- MPAA Rating: R
- MPAA Explanation: sexual content/nudity and brief language.
Parents need to know
Parents need to know that this period literary adaptation isn't for kids: It moves slowly, deals with mature themes, and has lots of sex scenes and partial nudity. The sex isn't especially explicit (there's some motion and occasional thrusting, with breasts, nipples, and bottoms visible), but it's frequent and plays into the main character's yearning for his one true love. Characters discuss religion, marriage, and adultery; brief violence includes a cut throat (with blood) and a physically abusive father. Some language (one use of "f--k," plus other choice terms).
Families can talk about how Florentino shows his love for Fermina. How does he defend his many sexual liaisons? Is that a typical expression of romantic love -- either in movies or in real life? How would you feel if someone who claimed to love you behaved that way? If you've read the book the movie is based on, you can also discuss how the two compare. Which do you like better? Why?
Families can talk about how Florentino shows his love for Fermina. How does he defend his many sexual liaisons? Is that a typical expression of romantic love -- either in movies or in real life? How would you feel if someone who claimed to love you behaved that way? If you've read the book the movie is based on, you can also discuss how the two compare. Which do you like better? Why?
Message
Social Behavior:
Even though he's devoted to Fermina and faithful to her in his heart, Florentino sleeps with lots of other women. Some discussions of religion suggest distinctions between daily life and spiritual faith. Cholera and love are deemed causes for fevers and bad decisions.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Repeated cigar and cigarette smoking, as well as drinking (liquor and wine) -- both in frustration and in celebration.
Violence
First scene shows elderly Juvenal falling off a ladder and dying in his back yard. Fermina's father wields a gun and a whip to threaten others. A brief scene shows men boxing in the street for public entertainment. When a throat is cut, the victim gurgles and dies.
Sex
Multiple sex scenes show bodies in profile and in assorted positions/locations (motion is explicit, and naked breasts/nipples and bottoms are shown). More partial-nudity post-sex moments, as well as visible breasts in scenes set on a balcony and in a brothel. Lots of cleavage in general. Florentino is invited to the whorehouse to ease his obsession with Fermina. Discussion of whores is alternately joking and pejorative. Conversation about a man's "thing," (Fermina wonders how it works, and her husband offers a "lesson in love," getting on top of her in bed before the scene fades out). Rumor about a man picking up boys on the dock. Husband's affair hurts his wife. Slang for sex act includes "screw" and "f--k."
Language
Profanity includes one use of "f--k" (as a verb), plus "s--t," "damn," and "screw."
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Cynthia Fuchs
Based on of Gabriel García Márquez's famous romantic novel, LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA follows postal clerk Florentino (played by Unax Ugalde as a teenager, then Javier Bardem as an adult) from the moment he first spots blue-eyed beauty Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). But Fermina’s widower father. Lorenzo (John Leguizamo is a greedy social climber who won't allow his daughter to marry a mere clerk . Instead, he arranges for her marriage to a wealthy doctor, Juvenal (Benjamin Bratt). The two men are total opposites: Juvenal is a practical-minded scientist, Florentino a desperate romantic. But even as the majority of the population struggles to survive disease (particularly cholera), as well as poverty and selfish government leaders, Fermina's sense of her own limits and options never quite illustrates a broader social and political resonance. As the years pass, Fermina finds her own way to survive the loss of her true love while Florentino deals with his pain by sleeping with hundreds of partners. Though Fermina makes the best of her distinctly female lot (enduring her father's abuses, raising kids, putting up with a cheating spouse), Florentino has more leeway, rhapsodizing to the end.
Is it any good?
At once florid and plodding, Mike Newell's film makes the book's magical realism all too literal. While the film’s slow pace and episodic structure are occasionally buoyed by Shakira's vibrant soundtrack contributions, for the most part the movie just presents one event after another -- much like how lovesick hero Florentino records his various sexual conquests in his diary. John Leguizamo’s distractingly outsized turn might best be described as Snidely Whiplash-esque.
When Florentino approaches Fermina some 53 years after their first meeting, he insists, "Age has no reality except in the physical world. Spirits remain as youthful and vigorous as when we were in full bloom." Even if you believe his sentiment, the film can't translate it, losing sight of magic as it focuses on mechanics.
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