Love in the Time of Cholera

Viewer Rating:Bunny Starr has rated Love in the Time of Cholera rating: 4 Star

Imagine waiting your entire lifetime for a moment to arrive.. then replaying everything that led up to it. The book fans will arguably grumble, but it is best to view this as a film in its own right. Mike Newell (four weddings and a Funeral) proves he can do serious and thoughtful. Javier Bardem shows that his range is not limted to (probably) the best "bad-guy" (No country for old men), ever seen on screen. However the star of the show is from the almost gamine Giovanna Mezzagiorno, whose discilpined and measured performance is in temperate affinity with her character. The movie is about love patience and the travails and vicissitudes that make up the panoply of a full and happy life. In the end one is reminded of Voltaire's Candide who spends a lifetime chasing Cunegonde. However in this delicacy one is reminded that it is what we overcome is the mark of our achievement. It's all about sacrifice, the ends to which human beings will go to attain a goal, and more importantly how the obstacles placed in our way bring out either the best or worst. It's a triumph of love, over prejuduce: the shallow purposelessness of physical gratification, the equally shallow and improper practice of imposing one's amibitions on one's children. The cinematography does considerable justice to the sentiments of the protagonists. It is worth going to see

Review published on the 31 March 2008 14:58