Like Water for Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate Review

Like water for Chocolate (Como Agua Para Chocolate), released in 1992 is based on a novel published in 1989 by Laura Esquivel. This is a good portrayal of why certain traditions should die. The film consists of a Mexican family of Dona Elena and her three daughters: Gertrudis, Rosaura, and Tita. TIta, being the youngest, is to stay home with her mother until her passing. "Never, for generations has anyone in our family ever questioned this tradition!" Dona Elena states. Day in and day out Tita is obligated to daily chores like the housekeepers Chencha and the Nacha. She spent much of her childhood in the kitchen and is the best daughter at cooking. The older housekeeper, Nacha, has been way more of a mother to Tita since day one. Tita confides in Nacha greatly. Pedro had confessed his love for Tita during a party. Pedro tells Tita, "One doesn't think about love. Either one feels it or one doesn't". He asks for Tita's hand in marriage, but Dona Elena refuses the proposal, but offers Rosaura as replacement. Pedro agrees to marry Rosaura to be closer to Tita. Pedro disappointed me with this decision. He was not in love with Rosaura. There was no fooling anyone with his new marriage proposition. My solution for Pedro: impregnate Tita. That way she would have been forced to marry Pedro to save what would be left of her reputation, unless the ancient tradition still presides over that. It seems like there aren't enough Pedros to go around in the neighborhood. Where are the other eligible young men? Throw one in Rosaura's direction. I find it odd that Rosaura accepts Pedro's hand for marriage when she knows he loves Tita. I dislike Rosaura for her pushiness in having sex with Pedro when clearly he had been avoiding it. In the meantime, Tita cooks everyday on the ranch for the family. Everyone is affected by Tita's cooking. She cooks the most deliciously seductive dishes that bring out sensations of love and desire amongst everyone at the dining table. One day the sensations of passion and sexual desire drove Gertrudis to remove all her clothes due to the hot flashes. She jumped on a horse with one of the revolutionary soldiers and rode off. Dona Elena disowned her existence for it. Every opening chapter starts with food. Author Esquivel does an amazing job incorporating food, such as the salt, onions, and soup broth. My favorite dialogue takes place during the scene where Pedro walks into the kitchen to watch Tita make mole: "Preparing the `mole', Tita Knew how contact with fire alters elements. How dough becomes a tortilla. And that a breast untouched by love's fire just isn't a breast, but a useless ball of dough". This is the best hyperbole/simile that exactly describes my personal feelings. It is so relatable for anyone. "In one instant Pedro had transformed Tita's breasts from chaste to voluptuous without even touching them", Esquivel continues. It was a heated scene. Bottom line, you cannot keep lovers separate under one roof. And you cannot force someone to marry a person they don't love. It will only end tragic. Dona Elena finally sees that this living arrangement is not going to work. She suggests that Rosaura and Pedro move to San Antonio, TX in hopes she can keeps the lovers apart. Dona Elena is obsessed with giving Tita orders and work to which drives her insane. She is released to the doctor for care for her behavior. Dr. John Brown uses an incredible analogy of a matchbox to the human heart, and the processes it should take to recover. If the viewer understands this scene then, the viewer too will understand the ending scene. Meanwhile, Dona Elena and Chencha faced trouble with a pack of malevolence men at the ranch. Dona Elena dies. Rosaura comes back home for the funeral of her mother and has a baby girl. Rosaura is stupid and wants her baby girl to go through the same tradition of taking care of her mother for life without marriage. Tita rejects the idea for what it has done to her own life. And what a surprise, Rosaura is still coming on to Pedro in the bedroom to no avail. She is like the third wheel. She is always sick and needy. She just does not get it. She is the last person to understand what is happening around her. I liked the idea of Dr. John marrying Tita. He was very nice and helpful. I felt bad that the marriage didn't follow through for him. Poor Dr. John Brown was left alone. Dr. John and Gertrudis are my favorite characters of the film. Gertrudis inspires Tita to take hold of what she wants. Tita tells Dr. John that she cannot marry him. The film jumps well ahead into the future, which is my only complaint of the film.Finally, Rosaura died of too much gas and farts. Her daughter Esperanza marries Dr. John's son. The ending comes full circle. This movie is well done, but now I have grown an appetite to read the book. It is a classic now. Note: the title, Like Water for Chocolate, refers to how water is simply added to chocolate in Mexico to make hot chocolate. Chocolate releases serotonin in the brain, which creates the same sensations as if one were to be in love.

Like Water for Chocolate Overview

Based on the best-selling book -- now experience for yourself the erotic tale of forbidden love that seduced both critics and audiences nationwide! Tita and Pedro are passionately in love. But their love is forbidden by an ancient family tradition. To be near Tita, Pedro marries her sister. And Tita, as the family cook, expresses her passion for Pedro through preparing delectable dishes. Now, in Tita's kitchen, ordinary spices become a recipe for passion. Her creations bring on tears of longing, heated desire, or chronic pain -- while Tita and Pedro wait for the moment to fulfill their most hidden pleasures!

Like Water for Chocolate Specifications

Expect to be very hungry (and perhaps amorous) after watching this contemporary classic in the small genre of food movies that includes Babette's Feast and Big Night. Director Alfonso Arau (A Walk in the Clouds), adapting a novel by his former wife, Laura Esquivel, tells the story of a young woman (Lumi Cavazos) who learns to suppress her passions under the eye of a stern mother, but channels them into her cooking. The result is a steady stream of cuisine so delicious as to be an almost erotic experience for those lucky enough to have a bite. The film's quotient of magic realism feels a little stock, but the story line is good and Arau's affinity for the sensuality of food (and of nature) is sublime. You might want to rush off to a good Mexican restaurant afterward, but that's a good thing. --Tom Keogh

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Oct 29, 2010 00:38:04