Amor real

After having been a fan of telenovelas for almost 11 years, I can honestly say that "Amor Real" is one of the best I have seen. The story, wardrobe, actors, scenery, and characters are simply superb. I must confess, I found it a little slow and so-so during the first weeks, but as each week passed, I began to like this show more and more, until I fell in love with it completely. There are no actors miscast in their roles, and they all portray their character with such skill, that even the villains are believable instead of cartoonish as in most novelas. The one actor that mesmerized me here was Rafael Rojas with his Amadeo Corona, the kind revolutionary leader who helps and protects Manuel. Here you have a character that comes into the story near the middle, and isn't a part of the main love triangle and their obstacles... yet, he manages to make this character just as remarkable and memorable as those who have been in the story since the beginning.

During my teeneage years I was a fan of telenovelas, and I watched many of them. I can say that this telenovela is by far the best in acting, production, music and storyline. No ridiculous acting and comic expressions that can be seen in most of the telenovelas. Adela, Helena, Maurizio, Colunga had their roles of life. Every character is played to perfection. All actors transmitted so many emotions making every other novela a joke comparing to this.

Some said that Matilde (Adela Noriega) cried too much and that is true. It was annoying from time to time.. But she portraied Matilde in such genuine way, very believable.. Not to mention the chemistry between her and Colunga.. So natural and rarely seen in telenovelas...

Although I don't speak Spanish, with the aid of close captions and a dictionary I was able to follow much of it. As I tuned in about three quarters of the way through the episodes, I purchased the DVD with English subtitles so that I could fill in the episodes I missed and figure out who was who. Sadly, the DVD was more like watching a one hour season recap of LOST without the explanatory pop ups. Had I not seen the last part in full, I would never had known what was going on. Some characters popped up without any explanation: e.g. the liberated woman who dressed as a man did not appear until she proposed to Renato Piquet (who was Renato anyway?). If only the copious extras had included a full synopsis and character biography list. This show was FAR too good to throw away in a four hour version.

The extras showed the enormous effort which had gone into making the show, the HUGE cast, thousands of period costumes, and a specially built set which would make a "Colonial Mexico" them park. I can only hope that the show will be repeated in full some time in the near future so that I can tape every episode, or that an extended version could be brought out on DVD.

95 episodes, minus commercials and chapter bookends last about 35 minutes each, which adds up to slightly over 55 1/2 hours, which would fit on 10 DVD's, or even 5 double sided.

To get to the story. This show was one of the most spectacular romantic series every. It had everything, beautiful women, handsome men, passionate love, intrigue, scheming, power grabs, gorgeous settings, cheating, star-crossed lovers, family loyalties, family secrets, a revolution - a real feast for the eyes, and for one who lives in the US, a refreshing change to see the way the Mexicans see themselves rather than the caricatures usually portrayed by Hollywood films. I cannot wait to see it shown again.

My only gripe was Matilde's constant snivelling got on my nerves. Not only did she cry enough to fill a bathtub, but the men were at it too. As little Manuelito said to his father, "Men don't cry"! Well they did in this show, by the bucket.

Having recently read Isabel Allende's books about rich powerful families in Latin America, the story attracted me. From the very beginning it kept me captivated. I have even contemplated calling in sick on days I have to work when it's on. Everything seems historically accurate and I am amazed by the amount of detail that was put into this production. It requires a certain level of intelligence to understand some of it. Being that at times they have dialogue in English and French. My family was wondering why French was used so much. The Spanish used in it, it's very nice and slow. It makes it easy to follow, especially for those of us Hispanics born and raise in the US. I'm always having to ask my parents the meaning to different words, this time the roles have been reversed. This novela indeed has a lot of class.

Amor Real is an excellent remake of the serialized novel, or telenovela,Bodas de Odio, which was an enormous sucess with the beautiful and talented Christian Bach in the lead role back in the 1980's. This time the storyline has been slightly altered somewhat as the time period has been set back in the mid. 19th century rather than the early 20th century, and greater emphasis has been placed on the revolutionary aspects of the story. All the actors wre wonderful in both series, although, in Amor Real, I have to give special notice to the role played by Ivan Mario(just forgot his last name). The storyline changes have given it more dramatic impact. Mauricio Islas gave a wonderfully nuanced performance as Adolfo, unable to forget his first and greatest love Matilda, yet so loving and gentle with his dying young wife who was won a place in his heart with her courage and unselfish love for him. I found it romantically fitting that, at the moment of death. he saw his late wife waiting for him to join her. Poor Fernando Colunga had the hardest role keeping Manuel heroic despite the character's stupid jealousies and cruel actions. Adela Noriega was both beautiful and poignant in her role as Matilde. Chantel Andere also managed to make her character;s occasionally villanious behavior to be the result of circumstances rather than an evil nature. It's rare that Miss Andere is allowed to show vunerability and become redeemed in a telenovela. She usually dies a grisly death! I highly recommend this telenovela, and also urge you to see the original with Christian Bach if they ever rebroadcast it. Bodas de Odio lacks the technical advances used today, but the acting is superb!