Like Water for Chocolate, screenplay by Laura Esquivel, based on her novel

Like Water for Chocolate, screenplay by Laura Esquivel, based on her novel

                This viewer has made some mistakes in connection with this film.

Therefore, the note on Like Water for Chocolate is probably not just biased, but wrong as well.

After all, most critics have loved it; the Metascore on IMDB shows an impressive and hard to believe:

                86!

                This means observers have not just liked this, but they were enchanted and mesmerized by Water and Chocolate.

                In addition, the motion picture was nominated for the Golden Globe and BAFTA for the very reputable:

                Best Foreign Film Award

                Nevertheless, this viewer was not thrilled.

Indeed, the reaction of the Roman Emperor from Mel Brooks’ History of the World, a formidable comedy applies:

“Nice…not thrilling, but nice”

Dom DeLuise aka the emperor was saying that in front of an immense, bulging coffer with diamonds, jewels brought to him as war plunder.

One element can impair, sometimes destroy altogether the pleasure of watching a film:

The awful procedure is called dubbing

The way Like Water was presented was in a format with artificial, ridiculous voice-overs that sounded pathetic.

Hence, it could be argued that the film is magical, maybe hypnotizing when you see and hear it in the original Spanish.

In an altered version, it sounds like hell.

On a positive note: we are so lucky in this land not to have to listen to a local version of movies and we just read subtitles and hear the original language.

Tita is the girl and them woman at the core of this interesting if not ebullient story that takes place in Mexico.

In her family, there is a cruel, preposterous tradition that has one daughter sacrificed to take care of her mother.

It reminds one of the ancient, sadistic habits of the Egyptians, Chinese and others who buried wives, servants with the dead master.

Only Tita is supposed to be buried and to keep living near her parent, without a possibility to marry.

When Pedro falls in love with the girl, he takes his father to do the proper thing and ask the mother for the hand.

Mother Elena accepts the proposal, with a sick twist, convincing the young man to marry…another daughter.

He says that he has done that only to be close to the woman he loves, but one could be suspicious of that.

If we would take a cynic or a comedian ‘view on this, we might suggest that the cheeky rascal had something else in mind:

Ménage a trois?

The fact is that both his legal and granted, imposed spouse and the sister in law get pregnant, or so we think…

The truth is more complex and I will not introduce any spoilers or alerts for this or other elements of the plot.

Let us just say that the Marquis De Sade in his feminine apparition has some very despicable, heinous attitudes towards her own daughter.

Comb my hair, give me a towel, iron my shirt, and close the door! You want me to get pneumonia?!