Love in the Time of Cholera

NEW YORK (CNS) - Many felt that Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez's acclaimed 1985 epic novel in the style of magic realism would be unfilmable.

As it happens, "Love in the Time of Cholera" (New Line) proves an overlong, uneven adaptation, despite the sturdy talents of director Mike Newell and playwright-screenwriter Ronald Harwood.

Florentino Ariza (Unax Ugalde), a young telegraph clerk in late 19th-century Cartagena, Colombia, falls in love with the beautiful Fermina Daza (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), whose movements are closely watched by her zealously protective father, Lorenzo (John Leguizamo), who wants his daughter to marry into society.

Florentino matures into adulthood, where he's now played by Javier Bardem. When he contrives to meet Fermina while's she's shopping at the market, she dismisses their love as a youthful illusion. Florentino is heartbroken, but his love for her is undiminished.

Fermina is taken ill, and as this is a time of sporadic cholera outbreaks, her father suspects the worst. A call to urbane doctor Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt) allays those fears -- it's merely an intestinal problem -- but Juvenal is smitten with his patient and her father thinks he'd be a perfect match for his daughter.

They marry, and much to the dismay of Florentino's mother, Transito (Catalina Sandino Moreno), her son becomes a virtual recluse. She endeavors to get him a job in a distant city to help him forget Fermina, but he returns. In desperation, Transito arranges for Florentino to meet a lonely, sex-starved widow.

Their physical encounter precipitates a pattern of sexual promiscuity, which the dour Florentino goes through mechanically (chalking up each conquest in his diary), but withholding his love for the hoped-for day when he may finally win his beloved Fermina.

He climbs the corporate ladder in his Uncle Leo's (Hector Elizondo) shipping business. He also takes pleasure in writing love letters for young lovers with few literary skills.

Meanwhile, Fermina's relationship with Juvenal is sometimes strained but on the whole well grounded, despite the time Fermina learns of her husband's infidelity, a circumstance he genuinely comes to regret.

Newell's cinematic rendering of Marquez's literary exploration of love in its myriad forms cannot hope to capture the emotional complexities of the book, such as the author's metaphorical equation of love and cholera, while the performances are a mixed bag.

Of the principals, Bardem, Mezzogiorno and Bratt age most believably over the years, even if Bardem is a bit mature for his early scenes. Moreno convincingly portrays her character's desperate concern for her son and later her dementia. But Leguizamo is way over the top as the crude, domineering patriarch.

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Florentino's numerous sexual if loveless liaisons (mostly talked about, but a few shown) are, taken on their own terms, morally problematic and dramatically detract from the romantic aspects of Florentino's unrequited love.

The film contains upper female and partial male nudity, several brief nonmarital sexual encounters, innuendo and some frank sexual talk, adultery, domestic discord and murder. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops