Yar, you be here: The House of the Spirits > Customer Reviews

The House of the Spirits Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 8 Reviews)

The House of Spirits
This is my second all-time favorite movie. West Side Story being the first; however this movie is beautiful, inspires all sorts of emotions and is a film which should have been given an award!

Disappointing
I confess - I watched this video without having read the book first, so I did not know what it was going to be about. However, I had just finished another Allende book "Daughter of Fortune" and really loved her writing style and the way in which she brings her characters to life and enlightens you about various time periods and cultures. So I had great hopes that "House of the Spirits" with its outstanding cast would do the book justice and be a worthy interpretation . I was wrong. At no time during the entire movie did I ever feel any of the emotions that the characters were trying to evoke - it just didn't come across at all. I liked Glenn Close in her portrayal of Esteban's spinster sister, and some of the minor characters such as the illegitimate son gave good performances, but I thought Jeremy Irons to be totally miscast in his role and did not care for his performance - it was stiff and rehearsed - I guess that's what I felt about the movie as a whole - it wasn't alive - the actors just learned their lines and spoke them without immersing themselves into their characters. Yes, that goes for Meryl Streep as well, I'm sorry to say - I am a big fan of hers! So, I'm off to the bookstore!

Distasteful Formula of Love, Politics and the Supernatural
"The House of the Spirits" documents three generations of author Isabel Allende's fictional Trueba family, opening with an extended panorama of the Chilean countryside. Narration begins with Winona Ryder speaking as her character Blanca, introducing us to the rich and prosperous del Valle family and more specifically to her clairvoyant mother Clara (Streep). ... .

The film misrepresents a great deal of what Allende has written in her novel ("La Casa De Los Espirítus" in her native language) and the biggest mistake was allowing director Bille August to pen the screenplay. People and events have been changed for convenience of the passage of time for which he and his producers could either not fulfill or didn't have the patience for. If the story's history had been traced correctly, the film would certainly have exceeded a three-hour time length. Instead of trying to keep a sense of purity to Allende's story, August has miserably chopped it in half by making the despicable Esteban García Trueba's son (instead of his grandson) and by having Blanca abducted and tortured by Chilean militants instead of her daughter Alba (which would've pushed the movie ahead another twenty years). Blanca's twin brothers Jaime and Nicolás are completely omitted, along with the mystic Mora Sisters, Amanda, Miguel and every one of Clara's numerous siblings aside from Rosa (Polo, who looks not the least bit maritime). <...

All of the actors do an admirable job portraying their characters but with August's butchering of Allende's story and the wonderful character development that one is able to experience by reading her novel, a lot of personality and interest is lost in her three pivotal female characters (Clara, Blanca and Alba). Next to how we come to know them by reading the novel, their personalities seem a bit flaccid and obscured on screen. Winona Ryder adheres well to Blanca's aloof qualities but this is still a faulty casting choice. Although she is aesthetically pleasing, she lacks the emotional depth of her co-star and Streep pretty much drowns the dewy-eyed Ryder out. Even though I have a profound love and respect for Meryl's work (Out of Africa, The Bridges of Madison County, One True Thing), she doesn't really belong here either; as the numinous Clara del Valle, she just doesn't quite fit the mold. It's a bit hard to swallow her youthful scenes as a 20-something bride (when she's actually over the hill at 44). Everyone else is pretty much in the appropriate age bracket and make-up helps to convincingly age them as the timeline stretches on.

It's hard to figure out what ... Glenn Close is doing here. After smart turns as the manipulative Marquise de Merteuil (Dangerous Liaisons) and spurned lover Alex (Fatal Attraction), perhaps she needed a breather. If her character had been played correctly (instead of being made to look like her brother's helpless prey), her performance might've been more revered. Irons (M. Butterfly, Lolita) makes the best of what he has as the stone-cold Esteban, his icy stare and explosive intonation effectively rendered....

Overall, this is an adaptation that disappoints on many levels. Had it been done as a low-budget independent film (with chapters - sorta like a mini-series) with unknown talents gone straight to video, it might've stood a chance. Distinguished actors and an art house director do not a great movie make.

1 2 3

Next Page