Cartas del parque

This Cuban variation of Rostand's 'Cyrano de Bergerac', co-written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez from his own original novel, is a love letter in four movements, following the seasons of nature and explaining the language of romance in all its forms, from the color of flowers to the handling of a handkerchief. It's an uncomplicated story set in an uncomplicated age (1913 Havana), but nothing is simple for the lonely widower clerk hired (unknown to each other) by a hopeful young couple with all the need but none of the skill to compose their own love letters. Complications arise when the reluctant matchmaker pours his own unfulfilled romantic longings into each eloquent epistle, at first uniting but then dividing his clients: a tongue-tied young aviator, and a beautiful but sheltered girl who (naturally) swoons over every line of poetry but can't quite connect any of it with the clumsy, earthbound object of her affections. In the end everyone involved in the charade gets what he or she deserves, and no one is disappointed, least of all the viewer, having seen one of the more elegant and amusing romantic movies in quite some time.