Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Lawbolisted Powerful

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Grunge_Tutu Having read the novel, I was curious to see how it would be made into a film. I had high hopes, because the book was extremely poignant and well-written. However, these hopes were dashed within the first five minutes of this truly awful movie.Now, I'm a fan of both Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Connelly. I think they're great actors. However, Of Love and Shadows brought out the worst in both. The acting was hideous and essentially consisted of Jennifer Connelly using an awful accent while making bedroom eyes at Antionio Banderas, who did the same (but with a much better accent).Aside from the terrible performances, the real flaw of this film was that it tried to incorporate too much of the book into too small a time frame. There is a good deal of fantastic material in the book, but there is simply too much to be done on screen. What seems to have happened is that the makes didn't exactly realize this and consequently tried to hold on to too many secondary characters and too many story lines. The result was less than satisfactory. I was entirely convinced that anyone who hadn't read the book before seeing the movie would have been completely lost.In short, I seriously pity Isabel Allende for this horribly botched movie which is entirely unrepresentative of the excellent book she wrote. Do not watch this movie. Read the book.

B24 But not much else. As a story, it is something of a docudrama -- part history and part love story. The historical part must be taken for granted, as the author maintains high credentials as a witness. The love story is just so-so, however -- predictable and depending for its attractiveness on a good deal of gratuitous nudity. We see here rather more of Antonio Banderas than is probably necessary. Ditto the Chilean army officer.The main weakness of the film is that it is not presented in Spanish with English subtitles. To have Spanish-speaking actors mouthing English is extremely distracting, and to my mind unforgivable in view of the locale and the facts of its production. Jennifer could surely have been taught to fake a little Español with some artful dubbing later on.Still, one has to appreciate the scenery and the score, played apparently by a full symphony orchestra somewhere in Bratislava or the like. As a travelogue it succeeds admirably, even if it is on the sunrise side of the Andes and not the other way round.

caspian1978 The subject matter of this movie couldn't be anymore serious. This movie failed because the studio advertised this as a passionate movie between Antonio and Jennifer. The poster and box cover for the movie shows them engaged, half naked in the middle of an act of love. In the first 10 minutes of the movie, we see some kind of a foreplay situation between Jennifer and her cousin / lover. Then, the climax of the movie has nothing to do with the investigation they had been on. The movie peeks when both Antonio and Jennifer make love. While the one scene has been said to be the only good part of the movie, I must agree that the studios allowed the audience to believe that this movie was going to be packed with sex, sex, nudity, and more sex. You can't sell a box of cereal with a naked woman on the cover and then have the cereal filled with little marsh mellow religious figures of Christ and Saint Peter and Paul. Much like the cereal, the movie has its moments but fails to hold an audience because everybody is waiting for the sex scene. The movie tries to get serious but we are overwhelmed by the eye candy that is Jennifer and Antonio that we can't wait for the passion to take over.

dottow This was a great film!Granted, the acting may not be tip-top and the casting may have its flaws, but I thought that this was a great film, and it's about time we have more films bring to life the atrocities that occurred in Chile. By acquiring more knowledge about the world around us, we can try to ensure that we don't repeat the same mistakes over and over.I really thought the film was great!