LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA

Director: Mike Newell
Cast: Javier Bardem, John Leguizamo, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Liev Schreiber,Benjamin Bratt, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Hector Elizondo
Run Time: 135 min.
Country: USA
Language: French with English subtitles
Rating: 14 A (sexually suggestive scenes; nudity)

Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the most acclaimed and influential authors of our time. He is perhaps best known for his novels One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera; the latter has now been faithfully brought from the page to the big screen with the poetic nature and the integrity of the novel intact.

Marquez‘s novel is in excellent hands, adapted by Academy Award winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood (THE PIANIST) and directed by Mike Newell (FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE). LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA chronicles an epic fifty-year love triangle spanning the late 19th century and early 20th century, set in beautiful and sensual Cartagena, Colombia.

The dazzling centre around which the story revolves is the spell-binding Fermina Daza (Italian film star Giovanna Mezzogiorno). In their youth Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza (Javier Bardem, BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN) engage in a passionate and intense romance cut short when Fermina‘s father (John Legui-zamo, MOULIN ROUGE, SUMMER OF SAM) forces their break-up and demands that she marries into a wealthy Colombian family.  Fermina does just that when she marries the sensible Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt, TV‘s ―Law & Order, THUMBSUCKER), a physician devoted to order and progress, who is the exact counterpoint to Florentino‘s romanticism. Florentino is all-consumed by his love for Fermina and vows to remain true to her. His love is earnest and unwavering despite engaging in numerous affairs (622 to be exact), which he does in an effort to mollify the pain as he waits patiently for a time when he can be reunited with his one true love. The term 'cholera,' in Spanish, can refer to both an emotional and physical illness. LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA evokes the idea that love, while redemptive and eternally sought after, can also be construed as a kind of plague. Javier Bardem is nothing short of brilliant as he demonstrates the extreme lengths that a lovesick man will go. LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA is a truly ambitious film, not to mention a stunning portrayal of Marquez‘s exceptional work and of Colombia itself.

"Epic in its ambitions and romantic to its core, Love in the Time of Cholera may not please everyone, but it has to be admired." - Detroit News   

Reviews: www.metacritic.com/film/titles/loveinthetimecholera