Best movie of this year hands down!

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Powerful

I watched this movie a few days ago for the first time, with my mother. I wasn't sure what to expect because I hadn't watched the trailer or read about the movie before. In fact, I haven't even read Isabel Allende's book. What caught my attention and made me watch it was the participation of Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep, two artists that I love to see working. And what a surprise when I started talking "I've been there!" or "I know that place" while watching some scenes! To my pride, this movie was almost totally shot in Portugal. I am so used to seeing other countries in foreign films that I always feel joy and pride when I recognize my own country. And Portugal is such a beautiful country, with so much to show and so much potential that I am surprised to be so little visited by the foreign filmmakers. Maybe this will change gradually, now that John Malkovich, Madonna and Monica Belluci are living here with us...The story of this film is interesting and appealing: spanning three generations of the same family, it focuses on Clara, a woman with a psychic gift to predict the future and contact the dead, and her marriage with Esteban, a wealthy farmer who made his fortune with much effort. But the main plot is about the forbidden love story between their daughter, the idealist Blanca, and Pedro Segundo, a poor young man who, moreover, is a communist. The hostile relation between Pedro and Esteban allows the film to show the political evolution of Chile during the twentieth century, from an oligarchic and conservative republic to a military dictatorship.All these things are good but this story has some problems as well, which may (or may not) have origin in Allende's book. To begin with, I didn't like to see Clara's powers so poorly used. It's a subject with no real importance for the course of the story, and I was expecting more here. Another major problem is the simplistic way that political issues are handled. Everything is black and white, no gray areas. Communists are the good guys, fighting for freedom and people's rights, and conservatives are the bad guys, who are greedy, corrupt and oppressive. This is wrong, probably untrue and smells like leftist propaganda. In politics, things are never so simple as that. I believe, at least at this point, that the problem may be in Allende's text, for she is deeply communist and has never forgotten the brutal way her father was murdered, but even this doesn't justify the highly biased way the film deals with political subjects.Concerning the actors, I am very happy. Meryl Streep did very well, with a contained and timid performance as required by her character. However, she was damaged by the way the script deals with psychic powers of her character. Winona Ryder was beautiful, giving strength and personality to her character. However, sometimes she seems naive and, as we don't realize the beginning of her love story, it seems untrue and far-fetched sometimes. Antonio Banderas was fine but this wasn't the right movie for him to shine. His character is a hook for the biased political portrait I mentioned and to create a love story that makes everything else more digestible. Glenn Close was more unlucky, however. I never understood the purpose of her character, whose permanence on screen is brief and doesn't bring many changes to the plot. Jeremy Irons dominates the film. He was excellent, toasting the audience with an exceptional work, worthy of an Oscar. In fact, with so many stars, it's surprising how the film went unnoticed.Technically, the film also seems irreproachable. Good cinematography and an excellent soundtrack, which remained in the ear for some time after the movie ended. Of course, I really loved the choice of shooting locations, and I found it funny to see the Portuguese Army participating in the film although I wonder who paid for them, after all they are not paid to do figuration and would be very serious if that money came out of the taxpayer's pocket.This is a very good film, with a star-cast working hard to please us, beautiful sets and costumes and an appealing love story. In general, it will surely worth our attention.

This film is an interesting adaptation of Isabel Allende's best seller by the same name. An interesting story, beautiful landscapes, well developed drama and characters delivered by a great cast. Jeremy Irons excels as Esteban Truebas, the tough and contradictory landowner, and Merryl Streep is a wonderful Clara, light, breezy, spiritual, as the character in the novel. Excellent performance of Glenn Close as well as the sacrificed spinster who cares for her mother while her brother is busy trying to achieve his ambitions. Barely good but certainly not outstanding is Antonio Banderas as Pedro, with excessive "hard handsome macho revolutionary looks" at times. Less fortunate acting by Wynona Ryder, who spoils the character with her overly adolescent posture. The film compacts three generations into two, understandably for the development of characters in a movie. A couple of failed aspects, however. First, the complex Chilean political situation at the time is simplified almost to a family affair, something the book does not pretend to do. The malice of the military establishment seems random, devoid of planning and intelligence, but whoever knows the Chilean history (and his ferocious but cunning leader) is aware it wasn't at all like that. And second, the most important miss in the movie: lack of humor. Precisely the brilliant achievement of Isabel Allende's novel is telling a highly dramatic story with a delightful and ironic humor throughout. Yet the movie moves from one drama into another, with just a few moments of respite (therefore becoming "heavy" and at times hard to swallow), and has practically no humor other than a few scenes at the beginning. A pity, because with such a story and the excellent delivery by the cast it could have been a truly great film.

The House Of The Spirits would be be for the 18 crowd. I found this movie to be a tedious and rather pointless movie. To me, I saw little purpose in this movie. There are many actors and actresses which I love to see are in this movie. Stars such as Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Vanessa Redgrave and Antonio Banderas are in this flick. The House Of Spirits is a long movie. I believe that 20 minutes could have been edited out. Yes, The House of the Spirits movie does give one insight as to how people in Chile live. I was disappointed to have so many of my favorite stars in a pointless film. This is definitely a movie to have on TV and play cards to or have another activity going on. If you don't have anything else to do but relax, watch it. I give The House Of the Spirits three thumbs up.

First this movie is a biased interpretation of the history of Chile (based on a book by Isadora Allende---yes related to the communist president who was assassinated).The Allende government like all far left governments quickly shut down the productive economy impoverishing everyone in the process (it had nothing to do with a plot by United Fruit or the evil market economies as suggested in the movie).The movie---I am finally getting there--is lavishly filmed and entertaining I got some amusement by seeing the bad guys win. The novel has some more entertaining subplots like the one involving the "aristocratic" Frenchman who marries the daughter in the book.Look all in all it is entertaining has wonderful actors and if you love Chile you will enjoy it--just ignore the pounding political correctness.