Starring: Marco Leonardi, Lumi Cavazos, Regina Torne
Set in Mexico in the early 20th century, Like Water for Chocolate is an erotic tale about a boy who falls in love with a girl whose mother will not allow her to marry. The mother has it set out that it is her duty as the youngest to care for her mother until her death.
In what feels like a Shakespearean move, the boy marries the girls older sister just to be close to her. In what also feels very much like Shakespeare, many mishaps happen leading to a tragedy soon after the inevitable culmination of their love. Tita wins the heart of the boy through the seduction of cooking and he never lets go of his desire. The sexual tension is the forefront of the movie, but there is an underlayer of guilt that is explored as well. The guilt of the child that wants to break loose from their parents' rules, but simultaneously feels guilty doing so. In this case it's the daughter being tethered to her mother's care, but has been explored many different ways over time.
Sometimes it is hard to get a sense of the acting when you watch a movie in subtitles, but I feel like the actors did a wonderful job of creating that sexual tension and it at least didn't translate as stale or badly acted in any way. This movie holds up well and would be heaven for any teenage boy (which I would have been around its release). I'll give it a 7/10.
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