El coronel no tiene quien le escriba

a bit slow and boring, the tale of an old man and his wife living a delapidated building and interacting with a fixed cast of characters like the mailman, the brothers sitting on the porch, the wealthy cigar smoking man. The photography of the river is marvelous, as is the interior period decoration. If you like decoration of Banana Republic stores, this is a must.

This is a truly magnificent and heartwrenching film!!!! Ripstein's locations are spectacular, extremely detailed and well lit, the dialogue is extraordinarily García Márquez, no doubt about it. Fernando Luján and Marisa Paredes give us outstanding performances as the colonel and his wife.

You must see it!!!

I'm a fan of his books, but this movie seemed like I was watching the same scene over and over again. Someone wrote they took the magical realism out in order to make the film more realistic to the daily lives of Mexicans. Well, first, they should have kept the magical realism in, it would have been more cinematic. Second, I never got the impression we were in Mexico but rather in some ambiguous place in Latin America, maybe Colombia, but with all the different Spanish accents who the heck knew where we were. The director maybe Mexican but that does not make it a Mexican story nor part of the new Mexican cinema. At the very least the acting was good and the cinematography, too.

If you have never read any of the author's books and wanted a taste of them before reading any and what you did was to watch this movie, you probably will stop one fourth or so into the movie wondering what the hell? Should you wish to discourage someone from ever reading any of the books, show them this film. Admittedly it would be a challenge to put the Buendías on the screen -and it would be amusing to see it done with Hollywood megabucks- but it would have juice and entice curiosity -this one doesn't. This movie can only be appreciated and liked -not enjoyed- after becoming familiar with the author's wider work. There's a movie version of a story by García Márquez (Yo solo vine a hablar por teléfono)with a memorable nurse Ratched on steroids in it, María de mi corazón, which I'd say you can start with. Then you can try this one.

Full disclosure: I have never read the book on which "El coronel no tiene quien le escriba" ("No One Writes to the Colonel" in English) is based. Even so, the movie is an impressive piece of work, with Fernando Luján as the war veteran who keeps expecting his pension.

This is the first Arturo Ripstein movie that I've seen. I hope to see more of his work, and I hope to read more of Gabriel García Márquez's work (I've only read "One Hundred Years of Solitude").

The plot's subtlety and the complex characters amount to a great story. Definitely see it.