Like Water for Chocolate

Laura Esquivel's wonderful novel about the powers of passion has been adapted for the screen by her husband, director Alfonso Arau. The result is as rich and savory as Mexican hot chocolate.

It tells a dark, sad, horrific but heartening story in sweet, gleaming images that tickle ribs, quicken senses and awaken hungers. There's just one word for it: Scrumptious.

Deliciously offbeat and bittersweet, it is, entirely appropriately, a treat.

Like Water For Chocolate is an extravagant, playful romantic fable that celebrates passion, liberation and the spirit of women but never forgets that unbridled ecstasy comes at a cost.

Strong material has been wasted by inept filmmaking in Like Water for Chocolate.

The result is a movie as magical as it is mouth-watering.

The film's biggest setback is its script in which the density is felt next to its runtime. [Full Review in Spanish]

An imaginative reconstruction of the traditional Mexican melodrama that is one of the year's best surprises. [Full Review in Spanish]

Set in Mexico at the turn of the 20th century, this epic of a forbidden love consummated only through food has a sizzling story, committed performances and sumptuous photography.