Customer Reviews

Of Love and Shadows

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a film that makes me want to go out and get the book because I felt as if I needed to know all of the story. I had the feeling that much of the performance was edited out in order to fit in a 104 minute format. Sad! The story is of a young, sheltered woman who is awakened to the reality of life in a military dictatorship. Along the way she also learns "about love between a man and a women, love of family" love of country. Her teacher, Francisco Leal, a man who "works in the shadows" is played to perfection by Antonio Banderas. Jennifer Connelly is wonderful as Irene. The downside to this film is the heavy-handed editing.

Chile and Argentina have gone through tragic years during the 70's, and this movie attempted to tackle what happened - everyday at the time, in Chile. Two good actors (Banderas and Connelly) seem lost in a poor script and directorship, although Allende knew the subject from the inside (I did not read her book yet).
Banderas could not concentrate and acted quite bad, and you can see that the way his eyes wander in several scenes with Jennifer. She makes a big effort in her role, but this is not one of her good movies.
In Jennifer's attempt to bring the South American political disaster to the screen, a much better (remarkable) film is Waking the Dead. A must see!
Note: their love scene in Of Love and Shadows could produce a tender moment in this play, but was grossly produced and the director missed the chance, unfortunately.

Betty Kaplan's "Of Love & Shadows" may not be quite as provocative as the cover suggests, but it is an interesting adaptation of Isabel Allende's book about the fascist politics of Chile under General Pinochet. This film was released in 1984. Jennifer Connelly who stars would win her Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2001 for A Beautiful Mind (Widescreen Awards Edition). As Irene becomes politically aware, we observe great changes. She moves from a superficial life of privilege to a dedicated freedom fighter. She is engaged to her cousin Gustavo played by Camillo Gallardo. The film sends out one signal as Gustavo disrobes and "presents arms" to his cousin then shifts as we see Gustavo as a hard government soldier. Meanwhile, Irene encounters Francisco played by Antonio Bandaras. Bandaras' performance was so real that I had a hard time hearing & even understanding him throughout the film. Mumbling aside, he's a serious worker "in the shadows" from the start and adds a layer of love as he falls for Irene. Why a guy with Antonio's looks was single in the first place was never explained. Diego Wallraff plays Jose, Francico's brother who is a priest and tries to get the Cardinal to help with releasing human rights information to the world. I found the backstory of the revolution in Chile to be interesting and the scenery as Irene & Francisco flee was breathtaking. While Betty Kaplan's direction seems to leave great holes in the story and sends out mixed signals between its romantic story & political intrigue, it is interesting for an evening's viewing. Enjoy!

Although I'm not an Allende fan, the viewer appreciates Chilean intelligentsia from her point of view. What avenues are open to challenge a military dictatorship? Banderas does OK--but the best actors are the supporting characters!

Lets face it lads, this one isn't in your collection for the storyline. Connelly looks sensational, and reveals all in various stages of the film. The plot disappears amongst wishes of if only! Its a good film, dont get me wrong, but the action concentrates very much on its female star. And rightly so!

Let's face it: overall this movie [isn't very good!]

There is however one good scene, that makes up for the wasted time spent watching this.

This involves the two leads investigating an serious assignment in a cave, while all of a sudden they start doing it on rock hard concrete(!)

That scene alone gives this movie all 5 stars in my humble opinion!

Since there are lots of reviews here of the film, I'll limit my comments to this DVD. It's enhanced for widescreen TVs (some call this "anamorphic widescreen") and has Dolby Digital Surround Sound. It looks and sounds great.

I'm a great fan of Jennefer Connelly ever since she was in Once upon a time in America.

If you love to see people loving, you will probably love that part of this movie. However this movie is also about a War on Terrorism. It may challenge some of the common ideas that we Americans get from our corporate controlled media. There's alot of beauty in this movie; but there's also something ugly. It is timely, especially now in America.

Jennifer Connelly must be desperate for work, becuase it's been ages since I've seen her in anyhting that showed off her considerable talents. This one is probably the worst. It's a ridiculous caper movie trying to masquerade as a serious film. It's starts out fairly decently with the Banderas character, then puts Connelly's in clear focus as the central character. Once it gets to the scene where they are investigating the cave as two professionals, then start doing it on the very uncomfortable cave floor, you know it's a stupid film, and it just goes downhill from there. It turns into maudlin sentimentality after that, with very overplayed scenes of him helping her after being shot down in the street. It wasn't the acting that was bad, though, it was everything else. I was hoping Banderas would just take her on his motorcycle and get Jennifer out of there, because they both deserve a writer/director better than Betty Kaplan.