D'amore e ombra

This movie is not only bad but also downright annoying. Acting is weak and the characters are not convincing. You don't need to have lived in a Latin American country under dictatorship to notice the caricatural overplaying of roles. And it's not because the story is so obviously biased towards the leftist cause in Latin America (totally expected, being based on a book by Isabel Allende): Costa-Gavras was able to make good movies in spite of ideology. The funniest thing however is that the movie in reality, and unintentionally, ends up showing a face of Latin-American politics that is extremely depressing: the left and the right are both so empty-headed that not only you're incapable of feeling any sympathy for them, but even worse, it makes you believe that now you finally understood why Latin-American countries have so much trouble governing themselves. It's a really sad movie.

Having read the novel, I was curious to see how it would be made into a film. I had high hopes, because the book was extremely poignant and well-written. However, these hopes were dashed within the first five minutes of this truly awful movie.

Now, I'm a fan of both Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Connelly. I think they're great actors. However, Of Love and Shadows brought out the worst in both. The acting was hideous and essentially consisted of Jennifer Connelly using an awful accent while making bedroom eyes at Antionio Banderas, who did the same (but with a much better accent).

Aside from the terrible performances, the real flaw of this film was that it tried to incorporate too much of the book into too small a time frame. There is a good deal of fantastic material in the book, but there is simply too much to be done on screen. What seems to have happened is that the makes didn't exactly realize this and consequently tried to hold on to too many secondary characters and too many story lines. The result was less than satisfactory. I was entirely convinced that anyone who hadn't read the book before seeing the movie would have been completely lost.

In short, I seriously pity Isabel Allende for this horribly botched movie which is entirely unrepresentative of the excellent book she wrote. Do not watch this movie. Read the book.

Seems like any time Jennifer Connelly is offered a film, they always flop, and has no good-looking men (Carrer Opportunities, Heart of Justice, Some Girls, Seven Minuutes in Heaven, The Rocketeer.) So, it was no surprise when she was cast as Irene Beltran, in this semi-depressing film. The real shocker was the poster:could she be showing any more of her self? how disgusting!!! Other shocker: Antonio Banderas, come on, if you're going to have a good movie, you so need to have good actors that can act. Antonio Banderas, can not act, if his life depended on it. That said, let me explain the film. Irene Beltran, (Connelly), is a rich young women that is engaged to her cousin. Meanwhile, her photographer, Francisco Leal, (Banderas), is slowly falling in love with her. And who could blame him. The two uncover a secret, in a mine, soilders have stuffed hundreds of thousands of bodies. This could have been Inventing the Abbotts, (rich girl, poor boy, falling in love with rich girl.) Then, as any perosn who has seen a Jennifer Connelly film would know, the two engage in intercourse. It was the where that was disturbing:in the mine. So, like any love story, people, want the two killed before the story is expsoed to the world. I was quite unsure of what to think about this film, so you be the judge.

Isabel Allende is not the greatest writer of all time, still she has a magic touch, of that there is no doubt..A woman that has fought all of her life, gives us the pleasure to enjoy her experience in this beautiful story (as are all of her stories), that brings together two great actors (Antonio and Jennifer), and almost makes us want to be part of it,despite the danger..these were the true heroes of our time, i think that's what she's really stating, by using simplicity as a way of being, a way of life, and showing us that it can also be beautiful.. A true love story.

This is very good film, accurate depiction of historical events of this South American country. A must see. Writer Isabel Allende has done a fantastic recount of many facts and events of the Dictatorship that plagued this country. Jennifer's part is played in a very natural, and sexy portrait, of the fresh, sexy, and Latin American spirit of people, with ideals, and lust for life and freedom. Antonio Banderas, still not a superstar, plays the Dr, and new photographer, with convictions. He does a great job on this film, and is nice to see a still not Hollywood viced acting, and superstar status actor, doing a pretty good job. The director of photography captures the spirit of a time and era, where the air was thick, and people were afraid. The "ejercito" was omnipresent at every moment, in and out of people's life's. A must see film, for lovers of foreign films, and to followers of Latin American History.