Tortilla Soup

Amazon.com

The tantalizing genre of food films--stretching from Babette's Feast to Big Night and beyond--has a delicious new addition, Tortilla Soup. The food-preparation scenes will make your mouth water. Fortunately, the rest of the movie holds up as well. Hector Elizondo plays Martin, a widowed chef who is losing both his sense of taste and control over his three daughters: Leticia (the always superb Elizabeth Peña), a religious schoolteacher; Carmen (Jacqueline Obradors), a successful but unhappy businesswoman still carrying on an affair with her ex-boyfriend; and Maribel (Tamara Mello), a rebellious teen falling in love with a young Brazilian. When a pushy, nosy, but very sexy widow named Hortensia (Raquel Welch) comes along, the troublesome subcurrents in the family start to surface. Elizondo's understated gravitas anchors the story, while the three sisters have sex, eat amazing-looking food, and break plates in the kitchen. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

really enjoyable movie.......2007-09-02

I really like this movie. rented it at the same time i rented "eat, drink, man, woman". Didn't know they were the same movie until then, except one is Chinese and the other is Latino. So both are very good. Would recommend this movie any time.

Soup.......2007-08-29

Was a good movie. Wife loked it more, but I bought it for her anyway

This tortilla soup didn't need too much time to simmer............2007-06-12

For those of you interested in seeing another notable food film, I reccomend TORTILLA SOUP. This is the Mexican-American update of EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN. The story is the same, only the language, names and food have changed. Yet, it still manages to workm though, purests will probably find plenty of room to criticize it for being a "knock off." The story follows Martin Naranjo (Hector Elizondo), a widower who was once a legendary chef at a restaurant, but has since lost his ability to taste. Martin lives with his three adult daughters, Letitia (Elizabeth Pena), Carmen (Jacqueline Obradors) and Maribel (Tamara Mello). As the young women start to break away from family and start lives of their own, Sunday dinners are the one ritual that keeps them connected with their father, through his luscious meals.

This film is well-acted, though, I could have done without Raquel Welch in an overly melo-dramatic role, here. She was just too shrill for my tastes, and not that entertaining. The food scenes, on the other hand, will really draw you in. Be sure to keep your finger on the dial to the best Mexican restaurant in your neighborhood, because you will be jonesing for some tlapana soup and chipotle when it's all through!

Tortilla Soup.......2007-03-09

I really liked this show. Would have liked it better if my house had not burned before I actually got to watch it.

Chipotle valentine . . ........2007-02-21

This is a high-spirited version of "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman" set in East LA, with enough footage in the kitchen to rank it among the better shows on the Food Channel (Santa Monica's Border Grill gets a credit). The cooking is all Mexican, and the family that gathers around the table to enjoy it, while squabbling all the while, is Mexican-American - a widowed father and his three grown daughters. Meanwhile, the presence or absence of romantic partners is a common topic of discussion and a prime motivator of most of the action in the film, so that cooking, eating and love in its many forms become all part of what draws and holds everyone together.

It's definitely a feel-good movie that sidesteps just about every inconvenient fact of life for Mexican-Americans living in Los Angeles. The music track is upbeat and joyous, and characters have a way of breaking into song, singing Spanglish versions of "Quizas, Perhaps, Quizas." Hector Elizondo is wonderful as the rock-steady father of this clan, and Elizabeth Peña as his born-again unmarried daughter is all barely contained passion seething beneath a pious exterior. In noteworthy supporting roles, Raquel Welch gets to raise temperatures as an overbearing oft-wed neighbor on the prowl for another mate, and Julio Oscar Mechoso turns in an endearing performance as an assistant chef and close friend of the family. Good fun. Also recommended: "Real Women Have Curves."

Average customer rating:

Tortilla Soup [Region 2]
Starring: Jacqueline Obradors , Tamara Mello , Judy Herrera , Nikolai Kinski , and Elizabeth Peña
Director: María Ripoll
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00006FMFU

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