BY JASON BLAIR
Giovanna Mezzogiorno in Love in the Time of Cholera
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**SHOWTIMES FOR FRIDAY
MR MAGORIUM’S WON-
DER EMPORIUM G
NOV. 23TH THRU TUESDAY
12:00, 2:25, 5:00, 7:30, 10:00
NOV. 27TH ONLY
FRED CLAUS PG
ENCHANTED PG
12:45, 3:40, 7:05, 9:55
[10:45, 11:25], 1:00, 1:30, 2:10,
3:45, 4:15, 4:55, 6:30, 7:00,
BELLA PG13
7:45, 9:50, 10:30
2:05, 7:35
HITMAN R
LOVE IN THE TIME OF
[11:40], 2:20, 5:05, 7:50, 10:35
CHOLERA R
10:10
AUGUST RUSH PG
[11:20], 2:00, 4:45, 7:50, 10:25
LIONS FOR LAMBS R
8:00, 10:30
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD
MEN R
BEE MOVIE PG
[10:50], 1:45, 4:40, 7:40, 10:35
[11:35], 12:15, 1:55, 2:35, 4:25,
5:10, 7:00, 9:35
THE MIST R
12:30, 3:25, 7:10, 10:15
AMERICAN GANGSTER R
[11:00], 11:55, 2:30, 3:30, 6:15,
BEOWULF PG13
7:10, 9:45, 10:40
[11:50], 12:10, *12:40, 2:40,
3:00, *3:35, 5:35, 6:25, *7:05,
DAN IN REAL LIFE PG13
8:25, 9:15, *9:55, 11:15
4:35, 10:05
*3-D DIGITAL
[ ] NOV 21 THROUGH NOV 25 ONLY
Call Theatre for Showtimes
Call Theatre for Showtimes
SUPERBAD R
THE ORDER OF THE
PHOENIX PG13
[12:45] 4:45, 7:40, 10:20
[12:50], 3:55, 7:05, 10:05
MARTIAN CHILD PG
THE BOURNE ULTIMA-
[1:05] 4:25, 7:00, 9:40
TUM PG13
THE JANE AUSTEN
[12:30] 4:15, 7:25, 10:15
BOOK CLUB PG13
RATATOUILLE G
[12:35] , 7:45
[12:40] 4:30, 7:10, 9:50
HALLOWEEN (2007) R
3:10 TO YUMA R
4:05, 10:30
[1:00] 4:00, 7:15, 10:00
3:10 TO YUMA R
GOOD LUCK CHUCK R
[1:00] 4:00, 7:15, 10:00
[12:15]. 5:00, 7:50, 10:35
UNDERDOG PG
DRAGON WARS PG13
[12:20] , 4:40, 6:55, 9:30
[12:25[ , 4:50, 7:30, 9:45
STARDUST PG13
HEARTBREAK KID
[12:55] 4:10, 7:35, 10:25
[1:15] 4:35, 7:35, 10:25
HARRY POTTER AND
[ ] FRIDAY THRU SUNDAY ONLY
Call Theatre for Showtimes
Times For 11/23 - 11/25
©2007
26 NOVEMBER 21, 2007
Lost in Translation
A literary masterpiece, defiled
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA:
Directed by Mike Newell. Written by Ronald
Harwood. Cinematography, Affonso Beato. Music,
Antonio Pinto. Starring Javier Bardem, Giovanna
Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt, Hector Elizondo,
John Leguizamo and Liev Schreiber. New Line
Cinema, 2007. R. 139 minutes. 44111
E
n el papel — on paper — it must
have seemed like a good idea.
There was the source material, El
Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera, the liter-
ary masterpiece that Thomas Pynchon
called “daring” and “revolutionary.” There
was a competent director, Mike Newell,
whose credits include Donnie Brasco; a
cast of almost outlandish ability, including
Javier Bardem; and the screenwriter of
The Pianist as well as Being Julia.
Assuming paper still records such transac-
tions, the deal that set Love in the Time of
Cholera into motion must have read like a
treasure map. Therefore it is not insignifi-
cant that the failure of Love in the Time of
Cholera the film — and it is a failure, ooz-
ing mediocrity from the first frame — ulti-
mately is one of paper. The screenplay
adheres to the novel so carefully that the
film is a cautious reformulation, the stunt-
ed offspring of a formidable parent.
Set during the years 1880 and 1930,
Love in the Time of Cholera is the story of
a triangular love affair involving Fermina
Daza (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), Dr.
Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt) and
Florentino Ariza (Unax Ugalde). As a teen,
Florentino falls madly for Fermina, a fact
he professes in hundreds of love letters
and telegrams, but at the insistence of her
father, Fermina marries Dr. Juvenal
instead. Over the next 50 years, Florentino
has 622 affairs, all passionate but loveless
liaisons that, in the delicate logic of the
story, underscore rather than disprove his
true love for Fermina. Unfortunately, to
record the passing of time, the actors are
subjected to an inconsistency of makeup,
meaning everyone seems to age but
Fermina, but none of them do so convinc-
ingly. This leads to problems of chronolo-
gy, the most serious of which is how, dur-
ing the span of one year, young Florentino
ages into Javier Bardem (who’s 38) while
Fermina doesn’t age a day. You might
read, as I did, their subsequent encounter
as a commentary on asynchronous aging.
It’s an odd scene in which Fermina rejects
suddenly ripe Florentino after not seeing
him for a year. Stunned, Florentino asks
when she stopped loving him. “The
moment I saw you,” she says. And no
wonder. He’s suddenly old enough to be
her granddad.
In Love in the Time of Cholera charac-
ters are defined by grand gestures rather
than by the tiny, often contradictory urges
that are so interesting because they’re so
human. It begins with a death scene about
as convincing as an elephant driving a car;
this is quickly followed by a climactic
scene better suited to, well, the film’s cli-
max. (To be fair, the novel uses the same
nonlinear structure, but in the film, it just
feels out of sorts.) The direction is leaden,
yet the script is sudden and jumpy, an
incongruity that gives the film the feeling
of a farce. It is abrupt when it should be
patient, languid when it should be alert. It
was filmed in English, a great mistake in
my opinion, given that the novel was writ-
ten in Spanish and set in Colombia.
Cholera, in short, is one bad decision after
another. Late in the film, when Fermina
and Florentino enjoy a brief kiss, all I
could think of was which animal —
human, horse, goat — provided the fibers
for his fake moustache.
At times, the actors elevate the materi-
al. Most of the time, they are trapped in it.
John Leguizamo seems to have wandered
in from another film altogether, so ill-suit-
ed is he as Fermina’s irritable father.
Benjamin Bratt is more than serviceable as
Juvenal, although I suspect his face, not
his performance, drew the largely female
crowd to the theater. Hector Elizondo is
charming as Florentino’s uncle; his beard,
like so many of the costumes in Cholera,
is too much of a good thing, gripping his
face so enthusiastically I began to wonder
if a cat had attached itself. The one grace
note is Giovanna Mezzogiorno, who
despite all the gaffes and miscues in the
film is never less than extraordinary.
Mezzogiorno is largely unknown to
American audiences but widely admired
and honored abroad. She is the one sur-
vivor in the plague that is Love in the Time
of Cholera.
ew
Love in the Time of Cholera is now playing at Cinemark.