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December 7, 2007 > Arts & Entertainment > Cholera movie enough to make viewer ill

Cholera movie enough to make viewer ill

By Brian Reinhart | Thresher staff

For nearly a half-century, renowned author Gabriel Garcia Marquez refused to allow any of his books to be turned into films. He finally relented a few years ago, and the adapted romance Love in the Time of Cholera is the result. After watching this movie, it is safe to say that Garcia Marquez should never have caved to Hollywood.

The film tells a beautiful story, but clumsily. Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) plays Florentino Ariza, a young man in 19th-century Colombia who swears his eternal love to a beautiful girl named Fermina (La bestia nel cuore’s Giovanna Mezzogiorno). She turns Florentino down for another man, but he spends the rest of his life waiting for Fermina’s husband to die so he can marry her anyway. Florentino is confident he will eventually relieve his loneliness and in the meantime engages in casual affairs with nearly seven hundred women.

Garcia Marquez’ novel is filled with sly wit and whimsy, from the very idea of a man sleeping with seven hundred women to the aging Florentino’s work writing love letters. Unfortunately, the film suppresses much of this light-heartedness, instead opting for melodrama. The dialogue taken directly from the book is funny — like when Florentino is asked if he believes in God and responds, “No, but I am afraid of him.” But generally the rest of the script is dull and filled with uninventive, soap-opera-style conversations.

Making matters worse is some surprisingly shaky acting. Part of the problem is that half of the cast is native Spanish speakers and the other half has never used the language in their lives. The result is bizarre and distracting.

In fact, there are only two truly convincing performances in the film. Fernanda Montenegro (Central do Brasil) shines as Florentino’s mother, and Hector Elizondo (Georgia Rule) provides some comic relief as Florentino’s boss, at one point stating, “I am not a rich man. I am a poor man with money. There is a difference.” Unfortunately, this is the funniest moment in what could have been a much more light-hearted film.

There are some other elements of this adaptation that just do not add up. Florentino narrates the movie, but only in the second half, as if the narration was an afterthought. Also, even though this movie takes place over several decades, some of the characters never seem to age. When Fermina and Florentino reunite five decades after he proposes, the only signs of aging on Fermina are grey hair and some prosthetic body fat.

Even the soundtrack by Shakira is flawed, because her loud and lively singing style contrasts starkly with the movie’s quiet seriousness. This is especially jarring at the end of the film, when Shakira’s sharp vocals interrupt a beautifully calm sunset along a river.

Love in the Time of Cholera is not all bad. It begins with a wonderful story and vivid scenery, along with impressive cinematography and an abundance of sex scenes. The problem is that the movie takes itself too seriously, and as a result comes across rather stodgy and bland. This is not the rich, magical world of a brilliant author. No, this film comes from a more prosaic realm: formulaic, cliched Hollywood.

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