Of Love and Shadows

If you don't go by the poster of the movie(which portrayed it to be a passionate love story), you'd enjoy the movie.

I haven't read the novel and I was engrossed very quickly with what was shown in the movie. The year is 1973 and Chile has been taken over by military coup. An woman talks to Francesco(a phychiatrist) about the nightmares she is having after military has tortured her and her husband. Her voice breaks as she says "one after another..again and again" Irene (Connelly) belongs to the upper class, she is innocent, engaged to her cousin, a military captain since childhood. She also publishes a magazine. She employed Francesco(Banderas) who is now out of job as the photographer. Francesco and his family are totally against the human rights violation that occurs. His brother is a priest in church who tries to prevent things.

When the magazine crew went to interview Evangelina, a magical woman, military comes and interferes. Evangelina with superhuman strength picks up military commander Ramirez and throws him away. They left. Shortly after, Evangelina is taken by military and she has disappeared.

Irene and Francesco tried to find out where Evangelina is. In the process, their lives and others take a complete turn-oil. And expectedly they fall in love.

The scenes of military regime is very well depicted. The arrogance of their police, the fear among civilians are very real and touching. Of memorable scenes are Evangelina's friend in military who is torn between his job needs and the human ways.

Having read the novel, I was curious to see how it would be made into a film. I had high hopes, because the book was extremely poignant and well-written. However, these hopes were dashed within the first five minutes of this truly awful movie.

Now, I'm a fan of both Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Connelly. I think they're great actors. However, Of Love and Shadows brought out the worst in both. The acting was hideous and essentially consisted of Jennifer Connelly using an awful accent while making bedroom eyes at Antionio Banderas, who did the same (but with a much better accent).

Aside from the terrible performances, the real flaw of this film was that it tried to incorporate too much of the book into too small a time frame. There is a good deal of fantastic material in the book, but there is simply too much to be done on screen. What seems to have happened is that the makes didn't exactly realize this and consequently tried to hold on to too many secondary characters and too many story lines. The result was less than satisfactory. I was entirely convinced that anyone who hadn't read the book before seeing the movie would have been completely lost.

In short, I seriously pity Isabel Allende for this horribly botched movie which is entirely unrepresentative of the excellent book she wrote. Do not watch this movie. Read the book.

Isabel Allende is not the greatest writer of all time, still she has a magic touch, of that there is no doubt..A woman that has fought all of her life, gives us the pleasure to enjoy her experience in this beautiful story (as are all of her stories), that brings together two great actors (Antonio and Jennifer), and almost makes us want to be part of it,despite the danger..these were the true heroes of our time, i think that's what she's really stating, by using simplicity as a way of being, a way of life, and showing us that it can also be beautiful.. A true love story.

The previous comment sounded to me like they weren't criticizing the movie. Sounded more like they were bashing the Country and the author...I found it was a good movie. I've seen better, but it's not at the bottom of my list, and neither is The House Of The Spirits. Of Love and Shadows is a book that explains in the background what was going on politically in Chile and it was a way to kind of get it out in the open - I don't know...create an awareness. I admit, it must be difficult to translate an amazing novel into a movie and have it come out the same. I find that Isabel Allende's books are absolutely fabulous!! She is a great story teller. And for this particular one, I also think you may need to have a bit more knowledge of what had happened in Chile to have a better understanding of what the story is about. The Movie - I enjoyed it...it deserves to be seen at least once, but...maybe..to get a better sense of what it's all about, it's best to read the book first! Maybe if this film was shot in Chile it would have been different using Chilean Actors that do an amazing job anyway. The movie may have been better. But I am glad that Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Connelly decided to be a part of this movie. Both are great actors that tried to give the movie feeling...

This is very good film, accurate depiction of historical events of this South American country. A must see. Writer Isabel Allende has done a fantastic recount of many facts and events of the Dictatorship that plagued this country. Jennifer's part is played in a very natural, and sexy portrait, of the fresh, sexy, and Latin American spirit of people, with ideals, and lust for life and freedom. Antonio Banderas, still not a superstar, plays the Dr, and new photographer, with convictions. He does a great job on this film, and is nice to see a still not Hollywood viced acting, and superstar status actor, doing a pretty good job. The director of photography captures the spirit of a time and era, where the air was thick, and people were afraid. The "ejercito" was omnipresent at every moment, in and out of people's life's. A must see film, for lovers of foreign films, and to followers of Latin American History.