Cinco días sin Nora

Nora's Will has a good solid premise, a very good leading actor who does what he can with both the character and the screenplay, a pretty involving beginning and such a good grasp of the Jewish religion's burial rituals that it almost feels mean to say anything negative about it. Truthfully i didn't really find it funny so much as gently, wryly amusing, and even then not as much as it could've been. Also the pacing of the film is a wee bit on the slow side. It almost feels like a stage play in part.

If you go in thinking this is going to be a straight up comedy...you'll be disappointed as its definitely more of a drama with some lightly humorous moments scattered throughout. Story is pretty basic--Man who's been separated from his wife for the last 15 years walks into her apt and finds her dead triggering many unhappy flashbacks of their time together, many unhappy family reunions, and many grimaces by the grieving man as his family is trying to honor his ex wife's wishes to be buried in a religious way. A lot of the humor stems from the man's willful and stubborn refusal to honor her requests in any way...and his attempts to belittle the rabbi and the religious ceremony that she wants to be a part of in death also come into play.

Its a semi cute film but it not uproarious (in fact its quite downbeat and even rather depressing in spots)...but even worse is that it doesn't really go anywhere either. Eventually the man sort of comes around and accepts her death, and does what he can to help her wishes after refusing to honor her for the running time of the film. That's more or less it in terms of plot. Character development is unfortunately equally thin as we learn about the various horrible things his ex wife pulled on her husband when they were married...but they loved each other overall, and its sad that she's no longer there to bug him of course, etc.

Film manages to stay on the watchable side thanks in no small part to the lead actor who manages to make his character's crabbiness somewhat appealing (and quite understandable once we've witnessed the flashbacks) Film has some solid supporting characters esp in the daffy actress who plays the ex wife's sister, but everyone who's not the main character is a little bit left out as its really the husband's movie.

I really liked this movie because of the story, the acting and because I like movies about Jewish people! It's a slow moving movie - not for action movie fans - a movie to me that feels like real cinema. The main character, Jose, is entertaining and interesting - and very well acted. And the other actors also do a wonderful job building this slow moving movie to a satisfying conclusion. I have watched it several times which speaks for what I think of it.

A lethargic beginning is never really overcome in this very slight, mildly interesting and amusing film. Complications from the death of the eponymous title character eventually provide some conflict but the main tension for too low is between the ex-husband and his memory of the controlling woman he left 20 years ago, only to move next door, ostensibly to keep an eye on his son. Never bad and not poorly paced for its slight content, the main problem is a concept that just isn't developed enough. The story as presented here could've made a strong short film but is ultimately meager at feature length, despite a few twists and fine acting.

Excellent film, a mixture of comedy and tragedy, with outstanding acting and a well-carved script.

Tender, nostalgic and very witty, with good camera angles. Check for the music, and for the fact, that almost all the 92 minutes of the movie, is shot in the department of Nora.

The movie has been presented in the Lima Cinematographic Festival in August 2009, includes a rather sarcastic point of view of the Jewish belief, as well as the depiction of such important characters as Nora's ex husband, the cousin, the maid and the rabbis and all the Jewish characters that appear in the movie. Is worth to note, that the flashbacks are very well decided, but you never truly understand the love the the ex husband still had, or the reason why Nora decides to take her own life.

(2008) Nora's Will/ Cinco días sin Nora (Much of the movie is in Spanish with English subtitles) DRAMA

The English translation for it's original title "Cinco días sin Nora" is "Five Days Without Nora", written and directed by Mariana Chenillo, starring Fernando Lujan as José Kurtz who has just discovered his ex-wife's suicide, and during the arrangements of her funeral uncovered a series of instructions written beforehand by his ex-wife to him as well as to others. With further complications on where she can be buried since it is a Jewish family and in some faiths- suicide is labelled as a sin is one of the controversy's.