Love in the Time of Cholera

An adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s masterly novel, Love in the Time of Cholera tells a story about unrequited love and fifty years of longing in the desire-filled atmosphere of Latin America. A romantic telegrapher Florentino (Javier Bardem) falls in love with Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), a daughter of a patriarchal mule driver (John Leguizamo) who, upon finding out about the affair, sends her away. While Florentino eagerly waits for his beloved, Fermina’s feelings fade and she marries a doctor (Benjamin Bratt), leaving poor Florentino longing for his chance.

There is a rule that great novels hardly ever make a successful transition to the screen – after all, Marquez’s are rather big shoes to fill. Mike Newell does try to make Love in the Time of Cholera faithful to its literary source, although not entirely successfully. The film has to jump from scene to scene quite fast in order to fit the story, spanning some fifty years, into two-and-a-half hours and, as a result, the magic realism of the novel sometimes turns into simply questionable realism. What can one think of a man “saving himself” for decades for a woman who has openly rejected him? Such situations are always on the borderline between romantic and pathetic – and it requires a considerable mastery on film-makers’ part to tip the balance to the desirable side. Therefore Marquez’s fans might not get what they expect – but it would be unfair to judge a film solely on the basis of its living up to the source, wouldn’t it? Even the writer himself reportedly saluted the adaptation.

Faithful adaptation or otherwise, Love in the Time of Cholera certainly rewards its viewers with considerable pleasure. Nineteenth-century Colombia is reconstructed in lavish sets and costumes – and with a handsome cast. The film’s greatest treasure is, of course, Bardem’s acting; he pulls off the role of a naïve young man – and later of a romantic old man – excellently. Other actors, too, play their characters in both their youth and old age – and trying to guess the age discrepancy and the thickness of the make-up is one of those little pleasures that are unsanctioned by film-makers, yet enjoyable to the audiences.

In the end, Love in the Time of Cholera is a lovely story about longing and unfading desire, set in the almost magical atmosphere of nineteenth-century Colombia.

Justinas Suliokas