Product Details

• Actors: Soledad Villamil, Inés Estévez, Jorge Perugorría, Federico Olivera, Florencia Camiletti
• Directors: Eduardo Milewicz
• Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: Spanish
• Subtitles: English
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vanguard Cinema
• VHS Release Date: September 5, 2000
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1892649543
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,804 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #3 in	Video > Art House & International > Latin American Cinema > Argentina
  #13 in	Video > Spanish Language > Drama
  #36 in	Video > Art House & International > By Original Language > Spanish

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Abandoned by her husband, Laura takes her nine year old daughter, Muriel, and leaves the hectic life on Buenos Aires bound for the tranquility of Argentina's countryside. When they lose all their belongings in a freak accident, Muriel and her mother are taken in by a suspicious proprietor of a run down hotel, Mirta who has children on her own. Through struggles and hardships, the two women form a makeshift family only to have it threatened when Muriel's father shows up looking to make amends. It's a story of courage and survival, it is also a story of men and women as seen through the eyes of a child.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful comedy about life without men, November 25, 2001

By	David Clapp "dfc-2" (TN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Life According to Muriel (DVD)

"La Vida Según Muriel [Life According to Muriel]" is a delightful story about women and children and the men who walk in and out of their lives. Muriel is the eight-year-old daughter of a troubled woman described by previous mates as crazy and combative. Her Mother wants to leave Buenos Aires and go back to the mountains but doesn't trust herself to make good decisions so she always lets Muriel determine what is best for them. As they near their destination, they stop at a mountain overlook, put a camera on the roof of their car for a time delay photo, and watch in horror as the car begins to roll forward and fall off the cliff into the sea with all their money and possessions. They beg a place to stay out of a woman in the burned out remains of a hotel, and eventually move in with her and her two kids. Both women miss the men in their lives but made compromises that did not work out and the story follows both their healing process and their developing strength in the face of tragedy and old and new lovers. The only possible drawback is that the subtitles are in white cartoon lettering on a full screen DVD presentation and are sometimes lost in the background colors, but the dialogue is easy to follow if you have any Spanish at all.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Boring, July 27, 2006

By	Wendy Schroeder (Englewood, Co United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Life According to Muriel (DVD)

Seldom have I watched foreign films and not enjoyed them. But this one was very slow paced with bad editing (IMHO). I couldn't find myself to care for the main adult character, Laura. I thought she was selfish, self-centered and ill-tempered. Her daughter Muriel was insipid but I blame that partly on the script. They didn't develop her personality enough. I found Mirta, the hotel owner slightly more interesting. A friendship between Laura and Mirta develops after initial hostility, but you wonder why. Muriel's dad comes around and he's a good looking guy but not capture my attention either.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to watch. The only good thing I can say about it is that the scenery is beautiful at times and I wouldn't mind staying at the hotel there...providing the people in the movie wasn't around. There are better mother-daughter relationships and/or female friendship movies that are more engaging than this slow moving time waster.

Something silly did make me wonder. Laura smoked constantly. They were in the middle of nowhere. How did she manage to keep cigarettes around? She had to buy them buy the case!

Yep, I'll notice odd things sometimes.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, July 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Life According to Muriel (DVD)

First of all, I'd like to say that I don't like spanish-spoken movies. But this is something out-of-this-world. From the director to the main characters, the crew, the production team, and everybody that is shown in the credits have made a terrific work, and I sinceresly encourage everybody to buy and watch this film. It's one of the best I've ever seen.