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Starring Javier Bardem, Benjamin Bratt
Directed by Mike Newell
The books of Gabriel Garcia Marquez tread a fine line between earnest melodrama and magical realism.
What springs eloquent on paper risks appearing sudsy on screen, and so it is with Mike Newell’s adaptation of this epic assault on the illness of love.
Colombia, 1870 and young Florentino learns he is destined to love Fermina. Instead she marries Dr Urbino (Benjamin Bratt) to live an uncomplicated life.
Five decades pass, Urbino dies and old Florentino finally makes his move. The essence of love is found in the margins. Or it would if there were any.
Sumptuous design is the only distraction from Newell’s chronic and persistent mishandling of the material. Riddled with hoot-worthy dialogue – “Shoot me – there is no greater glory than to die for love!” – this is Latin romanticism writ large.
It requires a lightness to coax airy themes from the somewhat ridiculous reality of Florentino’s obsession.
The whimsy that allowed Chocolat to fly enabled greater expression. Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) hits the deck hard, opting for surging melodrama and unpersuasive age makeup to tell it like it is.
Unlike the unfilmable novel, this discordant picture exhibits the worst symptoms of fever itself: unpleasant to endure then quickly forgotten.
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