Movie Review - Love In The Time Of Cholera

It's 1879 in Cartagena, Columbia as teen Florentino is passing by the window of Fermina. Their eyes lock and instant attraction by both keep their eyes gazed upon each other for 10 to 15 seconds. This is definitely love at first sight. However, Florentino works in a telegraph office and Fermina's father does not approve of the boy because he does not make enough money. So the two start writing each other secret letters, hiding them in various places for the other to find, each one more passionate than the last. They cannot wait to be together. Fermina's father finds out about the letters and decides to move his family far away. She'll be back in no less than 2 years. He will wait for her.

A few years later, they meet up in town and she remembers her father does not approve, so she coldly dismisses him (the fugly bitch!) telling him she doesn't love him and is no longer attracted to him. Heartbroken, his mother calls in a favor to have his employer send him far away so that he will forget and his heart can begin to mend. He will be gone for at least a year but will return. He knows she loves him. He will wait for her.

In the meantime, she gets sick and with the deadly strain of Cholera going around, she is convinced she has it, so a handsome young doctor makes a house call. He is instantly attracted to her and the father approves of the (financially sound) young man so the father gives permission for them to marry.

Florentino returns and is looking for his love, Fermina, only to find out that she is in Paris on her honeymoon. Heartbroken, once again, he knows that she has married due to her father's insistence. So now he must wait until her husband dies and then he can be with her. He will wait for her as long as it takes.

So while he is "saving himself" for her, he ends up bedding pretty much every woman in sight.

Flash forward several decades - she is in her 70's with two grown children with families of their own, he is 80 something. He has now been with 662 women by the time they meet again....at her husband's funeral. He arrives to declare his love to her and she tells him that he is never to set foot in her house and she never wants to see him again. But he is still convinced that she loves him and they begin spending time with each other again which infuriates her children.

Those of you that know me....I am not one for erotica. Lovey dovey stuff that can be found in a Harlequin romance novel gives me hives just thinking about it. For the most part I like the down and dirty get to the point type of story, but this one was REALLY good. Of course you're thinking the guy is stupid for waiting for her for 51 years, 9 months and 14 days (or whatever the actual time was) but it's supposed to renew your faith in love. And how if it's true love, it's worth waiting for....51 years, though? Come on. And, sure, he saved his love for her, but he certainly didn't save his body for her. And in my opinion, she was a butterface BIG TIME and I had a hard time seeing what he saw in her. Granted, this was a time before makeup had been invented, but compared to the other women he had been with, she was not much to look at. Add to it the cold personality and he should have dumped her the day she said she did not love him. And since their first encounter was a physical one (the gazing look), I just don't see it.

Either way, this was an excellent movie. I will definitely be purchasing as soon as it comes out. It was a hard R, and had LOTS of sex scenes and they cursed a lot, but apparently they had to make quite a few compromises to get it down to an R so I'm anxious to see what the deleted scenes were. Definitely not one for the kids, btw...

Vixy :]