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Love in the Time of Cholera
Love in the Time of Cholera Image
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Metascore
43 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 29 Critics What's this?

User Score
5.7 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 25 Ratings

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10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Benjamin Bratt, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Javier Bardem
  • Summary: Based on Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez' novel, Love in the Time of Cholera is one of the world's most romantic stories. The drama traces the Job-like vigil of Florentino Ariza, who waits for more than half a century to claim the hand of Fermina Daza, the woman he loves. (New Line Cinema)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 29
  3. Negative: 7 out of 29
  1. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    80
    It's a well-crafted, handsome period piece, and pleasant to watch, but the intensity of an obsessional style--something that matches Florentino's crazy single-mindedness--is beyond Newell's range. The director of "Donnie Brasco" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" doesn't paint with the camera; he doesn't seize on certain visual motifs, as he should, and turn them into the equivalent of a lover's devotion to fetishes.
  2. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Sura Wood
    60
    Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    38
    Is there another great modern writer so hard to translate successfully into cinema? Saul Bellow? Again, it's all in the language. The only thing Saul and Gabo have in common is the Nobel Prize. Now that's interesting.

See all 29 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 11
  3. Negative: 5 out of 11
  1. CarolB.
    9
    Loved it. A beautiful love story. Javier Bardem is imazing in that he can play the patient, kind lover in this movie and the crazed killer in "No Country for Old Men". Incredibly talented actor.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. ChadS.
    5
    "Love in the Time of Cholera" flunks its litmus test. Audiences aren't supposed to laugh when Florentino(Javier Bardem) tells Fermina(Giovanna Mezzogiorno), in all seriousness, that he'd been saving himself for her. Even though Florentino got lucky more times than the alpha male in a tribe of black howler monkeys, those women(622 to be precise, but who's counting? Florentino, apparently, that's who.) were encounters that, albeit fun, left him unfulfilled and lonely. It's not a lie exactly, but it sounds like one, when in fact, Florentino's pillow talk is supposed to be a declaration of love, and that's the major reason why "Love in the Time of Cholera" tickles our funny bones instead of touching our hearts. Florentino is supposed to be tortured. Each woman he beds is not Fermina, but he doesn't seem sufficiently tortured. Maybe the film needed more cholera; more dead people. Sex, then death; sex, then death. You never feel the spectre of cholera hovering over the characters in this movie like you do in the Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. Ultimately, you don't get the sense that Florentino's life was all that horrible. He got some. He didn't get cholera.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. KatieM.
    2
    I haven't read the book, but I am familiar enough with Marquez's other works to know what kind of atmosphere the director was attempting to recreate. Needless to say, the attempt failed miserably. What resulted was a shmaltzy and tedious storyline that even Javier Bardem couldn't redeem. I will also never understand why directors insist on close-up shots when their actors are plastered with comically bad geriatric makeup. Where was the editor?? I'm giving it two stars because at least it made me laugh.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 11 User Reviews

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