Like Water for Chocolate

From the setting to the food that is integral to the plot to the performances of the show’s leads, the series is a feast for the senses.

The characters are already more complex, and the world already more fully realized. When it comes to Like Water for Chocolate, do you want it to make logical sense or do you merely want it to feel right? I think this version does enough of each to make a familiar story worth telling again.

The HBO version certainly isn’t subtle with its performances or its dialogue or its lengthy passages of voiceover narration or its florid visual interpretations of Esquivel’s magic realism. But, grounded by the strength and sensitivity Guaita brings to the lead role, this Like Water for Chocolate is something at least as precious: a melodrama whose extreme emotions are tied to incisive ideas.

Nacha (Ángeles Cruz), Tita’s de facto mother and the one who teacher her how to cook, may get more of a backstory, but it is still grating that the darker-skinned woman exists solely as a vessel for Tita to learn. Yet still, it succeeds in making the decades-old story, set one hundred years ago, feel fresh and alive. Oh, and did I mention the food? It’s beautifully rendered, too.