Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Ortiz Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

grantss Engaging drama.Set in Mexico in the early-1900s, the story of a girl and her oppressive, tyrannical mother. In her teens, the girl falls in love with a boy and they want to get married. The mother is determined that the girl will never marry, as she has to look after her. Drama and intrigue follows...Initially a very suffocating movie, as you feel how the girl is oppressed and deprived of her free will by her evil mother. You keep hoping that she will run away, or do something to break free.Then follows a spell of liberty, and probably the most wonderful part of the movie. The shackles have been removed and she can now be herself and follow her dreams and loves.However, just when you thought that was the precursor to a happy ending, the movie loses focus. It suddenly gets quite weird, complete with ghosts, and ultimately becomes a soap opera. The last few scenes are pure soap, and diminish the value of what came before them.Overall - good, but could have been brilliant.

SeriousJest I didn't read the book, so if you've read the book, you might like this movie less than I did. The story is a good folk tale, and gives one insight into some aspects of Latino culture (i.e., traditions & so much more are often passed down through food; the strange traditions regarding family duty, even in the face of common sense). While watching the movie, I suspected the book is better, and I have been told by others that it is. The actor who played John was very exaggerated, although I don't know if that was done on purpose. Further, I had problems with Pedro's initial decision (the big one); as Tita later points out, there seem to have been many other decisions that would have made much more sense. Warning: this is a chick flick! In the end, though, my identity as a hispanic edged out my identity as a manly man, so I consider this movie worth watching, since the story is worth having in your cultural hard-drive.For more reviews and a kickass podcast, check out: www.livemancave.com

Keyska2004 Yes this is a romance movie, but it is a fantastic fantasy fairy tale quality love story. Pedro and Tita fall in love but Tita's mother objects. Tita is the youngest in the family and she must stay home and take care of her mother until she dies. Her mother even arranges a marriage between Pedro and Tita's older sister Rosaura so Tita and Pedro can never become as one.As I said this is a fantasy, and once you get past all of the initial story buildup for all of the characters the fun begins.Tita was born in the kitchen and befriended by Nacha the hired cook. Nacha raises Tita as her own teaching her how to cook and enjoy life. Once Tita's mother sets down the law of how things will be, Tita changes. Tita's cooking becomes magic. Whatever Tita is feeling when she cooks, it comes to truth in the final product. If Tita is sad and lonely, anyone who eats her cooking feels those emotions.I have watched this film several times since it was made in 1992, and it always leaves me feeling full of loves emotions. You have to watch this movie to understand the fullness of these emotions. I have gotten use to the subtitles over the years and prefer them to the English dubbed version of the movie. I love it.

Rebecca This movie would certainly receive it. After reading the novel, I was really anticipating seeing the movie. The book has excellent imagery, and the plot is extremely captivating. As I was watching the movie, however, I noticed that some things did not make sense. First of all, the novel is just as much about food as it is about forbidden love. So much so that even the title involves food, and every single chapter is based around a certain recipe that is important to the De la Garza's family history. Then why is it that there are so few scenes involving food in the movie? When Tita makes the cake for Rosaura's wedding that makes everyone vomit, there is no visual depiction of her tears flowing into the frosting which is essential to the guests reaction to the cake. What happened to the wonderful description of this scene that is in the novel? Didn't the director find that at all necessary to the plot? I guess not. Another complaint I have is the awful use(and sometimes lack there-of) of magical realism that is described in the novel. Tita's birth is badly filmed and obviously fake. And what about the flood of tears Tita cries after Chencha gives her the ox-tail soup? That appears to also have been unimportant to the director to add into the film, even though it makes for such a touching scene in the novel. Finally, I find the depiction of the Mexican Revolution in the film completely offensive and uncalled for. The director made it seem like the Revolution was so fine and dandy, with the soldiers happily dancing and making cream- fritters. The horribly stereotypical Mariachi music played whenever the soldiers come on camera also makes the film seem quite ridiculous. You can really tell that Esquivel and the director of the film were catering to the Hollywood crowd and not to people who actually understand the seriousness of revolution and how important it was to Mexico. Overall,the bad acting, the telenovela-esque music, and the straying from the original plot made this movie in my opinion, a complete and utter disappointment.