A Casa dos Espíritos

this film has spirit, hope and courage. a love story spanning three generations, dealing with mystic experiences, cruel ambition and selfless devotion. wonderfully moving performances by entire cast. irons plays a powerful fool who's lost his humanity, but not his desire to love. streep is wonderful as a woman who is a bridge between life and spirit. close is moving as a woman who denied her own desires tending first her mother, then her brother. rider blossoms with courage and passion for banderas who is fine as revolutionist. do not attempt to watch this film--feel it, experience it, open your heart to it's romantic and passionate tale. allow it charm you and take you back to timeless story telling of hope and disappointment and cruel injustice and forgiveness. it's clear that this piece is a collective gift of love from all involved to all whom are willing to be transported to romance, to spiritual connections, to love strong enough to reach beyond death.

I only began to watch this movie because it was on Encore network, and I usually like movies with Streep and/or Irons. It kept me interested the whole 2 hours.

The movie covers 3 generations and about 60 years. It is set in South America. The father (Irons) achieves his wealth, social, and political status through hard work. He is a difficult man, and when his young daughter (Winona Ryder) befriends a young peasant boy, she is sent to school away. The mother (Streep) seems to have some connection with the supernatural.

Eventually a progressive party wins the election, and the old conservative party gets the military to oust the new government. Civil war almost breaks out, people are mistreated, and old relationships must be re-examined.

A good study in character and family relationships, moves a bit slow at times, but represents leisure story-telling. A good movie, I give it "7" of "10". I believe it was loosely based on some historical events.

I went into this film blind after missing out on it in the nineties after not appealing to my younger self at the time.

Now i'm more mature and open to all types of film, and not biased (i don't live in South America and have not read the book).

Tbh i didn't even read the storyline before so had no incline to either the story or even the exact genre of film i would be viewing, which imo always makes a film more intriguing the less you know about it.

To cut out the main jist of my review, i throughly enjoyed it from start to end! With great acting, scenery, score and editing you could tell it was a well made film from the off.

With quite a long running time i was expecting some overly long scenes, but it never felt drawn out and the pace was pretty spot on i never clocked watched once! And this is coming from someone that rarely views films longer than two hours and i watched the full 2h 25m original cut of the film.

The only gripe i guess in this version is knowing a couple of the characters (who i won't name) made it to the end starting with a retrospective beginning, i haven't seen the shorter version but i'm guessing this start was changed for the overseas cut?

To sum up, its well worth a watch even if you think the type of film is not for you.

The book was fabulous and remains one of my favorites. The movie, for some reason reminded me of "The Thorn Birds"--I guess because I felt so much was left out, and it would have been better as a mini-series.

The book evokes a much more magical, mythical, and "Spirit"-ual feeling that reflects the special flavor of life in South America, especially with Clara having green hair, and more powers in the book. A lot of that feeling is left out of the movie.

However, the movie mostly makes up for this lack in the extremely vivid presentation of the characters' emotions.

I never expected the tears. I never expected the emotion. I was swept away by the epic story and came crashing to earth when the troops took over. All this despite the fact that I do and did know who Isabelle Allende is and I was aware of the history of coups in S. America. I loved the people with the notable and chilly brilliant exception from Jeremy Irons (Can we ever really love his incredible characters?)

Another underrated movie that seeks much and delivers well although at times with a bit too much telegraphing (the bathing scene with the young Blanca for example.)

It was a three hankie movie in the end, A great three hankie movie.

metro_alma@earthlink.net