Love in the Time of Cholera
New Line Cinema | Release Date: November 16, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
43
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
17
Negative:
7
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Hollywood ReporterSura Wood
Shot on location in vibrant Cartagena, the film's strong suit is aesthetic. Cinematographer Alfonso Beato, designer Wolf Kroeger and costume designer Marit Allen evoke aged exotic locales, rugged rural settings and dimly lit period interiors. A closing, aerial image has a breathtaking, spiritual beauty. Read full review
50
VarietyJohn Anderson
Despite a magnificent performance by Javier Bardem, the film not only falls short of the novel's magic, but fails to generate much of its own. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Newell has done some fine work in all sorts of genres, from “Four Weddings and a Funeral” to “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” but in “Cholera” he seems to be chronicling a half-century of events, passions and desires as a tourist, not a native. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Newell's film arrives loaded with problems. The most superficial, but undeniably distracting, involves the way characters age at different rates and under makeup of varying believability. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
More mediocre than magical. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Lush, extravagant, sad and touching, Love in the Time of Cholera still feels weirdly insubstantial when all the febrile passion has abated. Like a fever it breaks, passes and is forgotten. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Newell's rendering of the iconic novel is dull and creatively off-kilter, lacking the surreal magic and robust passion of Márquez's signature magical realism style and never fully engaging the viewer. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
If you've seen "Gone With the Wind," you've seen what Love in the Time of Cholera isn't. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
Today, the 1985 novel is the No. 1-selling paperback in North America. Sadly, the movie is a bonfire where the novel was a blaze of fireworks. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
This romantic drama by director Mike Newell preserves the odd playfulness of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's international best seller but sacrifices its eroticism and intricate nonlinear plotting. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Eventually arrives at a lovely place, but it arrives limping. Small but nagging problems drag it down, such as weird acting choices, bizarre casting and strange aging makeup. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
That, after all these years of playing hard-to-get, the novel has made it to the screen in the form of a plodding, tone-deaf, overripe, overheated Oscar-baiting telenovela smacks of just the kind of deliciously ironic prank an 80-year-old Colombian Nobel laureate could really get behind. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Little of the fragile wisdom with which García Márquez imbued that idea has survived this timid Hollywood treatment. Read full review
42
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie version of Love in the Time of Cholera doesn't have the drive or the dynamism to be an artistic nightmare. It's more like a dead dream, the kind that leaves nothing more behind in the light of day than a sickly cloud. Read full review
40
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Faithful to the outline of the novel but emotionally and spiritually anemic, it slides into the void between art and entertainment, where well-intended would-be screen epics often land with a thud. Read full review
40
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Forget the heat of passion: The movie never breaks a sweat. Read full review
40
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Is love a disease, as Marquez possibly wanted us to believe? Maybe, but in the case of this adaptation, it’s more of a laughing sickness. Read full review
More From This Movie

43 Critic Reviews

5.3 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL