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MOVIES / ON DVD / LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
Love in the Time of Cholera

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Love in the Time of Cholera (2007)

27%
22%
53%
N/A
N/A
N/A
27 %
Reviews Counted: 103 Fresh: 28  Rotten:75 Average Rating: 4.8/10
 
Consensus: Though beautifully filmed, the makers of Love in the Time of Cholera fail to transfer the novel's magic to the screen.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 2 hrs 19 mins

Theatrical Release: Nov 16, 2007 Wide

Box Office: $4,584,886

Synopsis: Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA straddles the line between pop and art, and manages to be both a bestseller and a literary masterpiece. With an excellent cast and a timeless story, Mike Newell's cinematic adaptation strives for that same balance. As a young man in... Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA straddles the line between pop and art, and manages to be both a bestseller and a literary masterpiece. With an excellent cast and a timeless story, Mike Newell's cinematic adaptation strives for that same balance. As a young man in 19th-century Colombia, Florentino Ariza (played primarily by Javier Bardem) falls in love with a beautiful woman named Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). But an overprotective father (John Leguizamo) and too much reality intrude on their romance, and Fermina marries a successful doctor, Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt). But a wedding ring--and the passing decades--aren't enough to dissuade Florentino from his love, even as he beds hundreds of women as he tries to get over his undying passion. Screenwriter Ronald Harwood (THE PIANIST) distills Garcia Marquez's novel--which spans more than 50 years and almost 400 pages--into an accessible film. The basic element of the book--Florentino's love for Fermina--remains intact, and it's driven by yet another excellent performance from Bardem. Fans who were impressed by his masterly turn as a cold-blooded killer in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN will be pleasantly surprised that the Spanish actor can be just as adept playing a character driven by love. As in his previous work such as FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL and HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE, director Mike Newell has assembled another fine cast that also includes Liev Schreiber, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Hector Elizondo. [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Hector Elizondo

Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Ronald Harwood
Producer: Scott Steindorff
Composer: Antonio Pinto

DVD Info

Release:

Mar 18, 2008

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen - 2.35

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English
  • Subtitles - English, Spanish - Optional
  • Closed Captioned - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - Mike Newell - Director
  • Behind the Scenes - The Making of
  • Deleted Scenes - with audio commentary by Editor Mick Audsley
  • Trailer - Theatrical Trailer

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Ratings Image
N/A

Unlike the unfilmable novel, Newell’s discordant picture exhibits the worst symptoms of fever itself: unpleasant to endure and then quickly forgotten.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/30/08
Colin Fraser
FILMINK (Australia)
Ratings Image
3/5

Though Cartagena in the late 19th Century is beautifully evoked in director Mike Newell’s visually sumptuous film, there’s something missing at the core of this love story.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/29/08
David Stratton
At the Movies
Ratings Image
2.5/5

If further proof were needed of my dispiriting theory that the best novels rarely make the best films, it is to be found, richly scented and sumptuously packaged, in Love in the Time of Cholera.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/25/08
Evan Williams
The Australian
Ratings Image
N/A

A saga about love in the most romantic of senses, Mike Nicholls' adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' acclaimed novel is one man's ode to that ethereal emotion that is an end in itself.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/15/08
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
Ratings Image
2/5

A valiant attempt to turn a complex novel into a compelling movie is hamstrung by a conventional literary sensibility, an uneven tone and, crucially, a failure to establish a moving, meaningful connection between its two major players.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/20/08
Ian Freer
Empire Magazine
Ratings Image
N/A

Never read García Márquez and still waiting for a sequel to The Notebook? There's something here for you.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/17/08
Matt Kelemen
Las Vegas CityLife
Ratings Image
N/A

... Newell and Harwood completely missed the mark with this one, turning a complex love story into a superficial period film with no heart or heat.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/12/08
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
DVD Review
Ratings Image
4/10

Listless, poorly scripted, badly acted and displaying an unforgivable misinterpretation of its source material, Cholera is easily one of the worst adaptations of a great book ever mounted.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/28/08
Brandon Fibbs
Colorado Springs Gazette
Ratings Image
2/5

El universo literario de Gabriel García Márquez como sólo Hollywood podía hacerlo: vistoso, prolijo, insípido, superficial. Ni siquiera Javier Bardem logra rescatarlo del olvido.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/14/08
Enrique Buchichio
Uruguay Total
Ratings Image
2/5

mono toy katorthoma, na se kanei na mi biazesai idiaitera na diabaseis to biblio sto opoio basizetai

Full Review | comment Comment
01/14/08
Joseph Proimakis
Movies for the Masses
Ratings Image
N/A

Despite some lovely design and cinematography, Mike Newell's adaptation of the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is ruined before it can get going by some disastrous casting.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/21/07
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat
Ratings Image
D+

A novel about endless devotion has been turned into a film that seems to go on forever.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/27/07
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion
Ratings Image
2/5

Is love a disease, as Marquez possibly wanted us to believe? Maybe, but in the case of this adaptation, it's more of a laughing sickness.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/21/07
Pete Vonder Haar
Film Threat
Ratings Image
5/10

It's very pretty and very prestigious and it has no heart.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/20/07
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy
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2.5/5

The characters are never sufficiently formed to be both likable and absurd at the same time -- and ultimately they're really neither.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/20/07
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Ratings Image
N/A

Sometimes you’re watching a bad movie, and you’re like, 'Well, I’m still entertained,' so I’m recommending it on that sort of level.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/19/07
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
1/4

Adaptation of Marquez masterpiece marred by absence of magical realism.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/18/07
Kam Williams
NewsBlaze
Ratings Image
2/4

Sometimes it's almost impossible to translate a novel to the big screen.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/18/07
Linda Cook
Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)
Ratings Image
3/5

Structurally, the film follows the story of the novel to a fine point without changing the through line of any of the three central characters as it clumsily hops from scene to scene.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/17/07
Adam Fendelman
HollywoodChicago.com
Ratings Image
N/A

Weirdly proposing sexual excess as the cure for unrequited love, the film has sad sack protag Bardem drowning his sorrows in an endless round of quickies with 623 faceless babes in heat.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/17/07
Prairie Miller
NewsBlaze
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