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Tortilla Soup
Columbia/Tri-Star // PG-13 // January 15, 2002
List Price: $27.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
While it's not without a few concerns, "Tortilla Soup" is a refreshingly sweet and well-done comedy/drama that, while familar and occasionally predictable, is more than livened by a cast that delivers superb performances. Simply, everyone in the film seems to genuinely be having fun and, as a result, I got caught up in it. The film is a remake of director Ang Lee's "Eat Drink Man Woman", only instead of Chinese food, there is Mexican food (I think both are equally fantastic).
The film revolves around the Naranjo family, including chef Martin Naranjo (Hector Elizondo) and his three grown daughters; Leticia (Elizabeth Peña), Carmen (Jacqueline Obradors) and soon-to-be college student Maribel (Tamara Mello). Martin has lost his sense of taste and smell, but he still hasn't lost his sense how to deal with the problems that go on within his family. As they gather around the dinner table, each of them announces another problem they're dealing with.
This could quickly evaporate into sitcom-ish humor, but what really livens the film is the casting. The three women seem to be having a great deal of fun and really enjoy getting into their characters (especially Mello, who's terrific). I more than believed the three as sisters. Elizondo is funny and engaging, as per usual, but Raquel Welch (as Martin's girlfriend) is just okay - there are scenes where she clearly stands out as not being up to the performances of the rest of the cast. Of course, a main supporting character in the film is the food and it looks stunning here. If not captured quite as beautifully as possible by the cinematography, it still shines through
Yes, the film is familiar and rather predictable, but I thought the characters felt realistic and portrayed a nice, supportive family. As the characters were nicely realized individuals with distict personalities, I found myself caring about them and what happened to them as the film progressed. While the film does shift slightly into drama in the second half, it does so confidently and never decends too far into melodrama. Yes, things do obviously work out in the end, but I thought the end result of the story was believable and wrapped up the film in a more than satisfying manner.
A few elements in "Tortilla Soup" (such as Welch, who feels out of place) didn't work and there are a few moments that could have been trimmed, I found the film a very pleasant suprise - it's a pleasure to watch a cast really work together so well.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Tortilla Soup" is presented by Columbia/Tristar in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen on one side of the disc, while the other side has a pan & scan edition. The anamorphic widescreen edition is perfectly acceptable, if not really noteworthy. Sharpness and detail are good, but the picture doesn't boast a terrifically well-defined image and there are even a few moments of slight softness.
Luckily, there aren't many flaws besides a little softness. I only spotted a couple of stray instances of specks on the print used, while edge enhancement and pixelation only made one or two appearances in trace amounts. Colors often looked rich and bright, as the colors of the food stood out especially well. A good, if not great presentation.
SOUND: "Tortilla Soup" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.0. I really didn't expect a great deal of activity from the soundtrack, but the film's audio delivered a bit better than I'd expected it would. While the surrounds certainly aren't needed in the film's dialogue-driven interior sequences, there were some moments where the surrounds delivered the sounds of crowds of people or other noises. The rear speakers also occasionally provided the score.
Audio quality was very enjoyable, as the score sounded vivid and lively, coming through crisply and warmly. Dialogue also sounded natural and without any rough sounding moments. A Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack is also included in Spanish.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus that essentially use film-themed images and cover art.
EXTRAS: It's quite dissapointing that there is nothing in the way of supplemental features included on this DVD. I'm suprised that the studio couldn't have at least included a "making of" or its usual "bonus trailers". It's not as if the film wasn't successful in theaters - the low-budget film made 4.4m on a small amount of screens.
Final Thoughts: "Tortilla Soup" was a great little picture that, while not perfect, I enjoyed quite a lot. What's dissapointing is Columbia/Tristar's DVD, which, while it does provide satisfactory audio and video, it doesn't offer anything at all in the way of supplements - as such, the $27.95 retail price is rather high. Still, I enjoyed the movie highly and think the DVD is highly recommended as a rental. I definitely hope the film won't be overlooked in an otherwise busy week of releases.
The film revolves around the Naranjo family, including chef Martin Naranjo (Hector Elizondo) and his three grown daughters; Leticia (Elizabeth Peña), Carmen (Jacqueline Obradors) and soon-to-be college student Maribel (Tamara Mello). Martin has lost his sense of taste and smell, but he still hasn't lost his sense how to deal with the problems that go on within his family. As they gather around the dinner table, each of them announces another problem they're dealing with.
This could quickly evaporate into sitcom-ish humor, but what really livens the film is the casting. The three women seem to be having a great deal of fun and really enjoy getting into their characters (especially Mello, who's terrific). I more than believed the three as sisters. Elizondo is funny and engaging, as per usual, but Raquel Welch (as Martin's girlfriend) is just okay - there are scenes where she clearly stands out as not being up to the performances of the rest of the cast. Of course, a main supporting character in the film is the food and it looks stunning here. If not captured quite as beautifully as possible by the cinematography, it still shines through
Yes, the film is familiar and rather predictable, but I thought the characters felt realistic and portrayed a nice, supportive family. As the characters were nicely realized individuals with distict personalities, I found myself caring about them and what happened to them as the film progressed. While the film does shift slightly into drama in the second half, it does so confidently and never decends too far into melodrama. Yes, things do obviously work out in the end, but I thought the end result of the story was believable and wrapped up the film in a more than satisfying manner.
A few elements in "Tortilla Soup" (such as Welch, who feels out of place) didn't work and there are a few moments that could have been trimmed, I found the film a very pleasant suprise - it's a pleasure to watch a cast really work together so well.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Tortilla Soup" is presented by Columbia/Tristar in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen on one side of the disc, while the other side has a pan & scan edition. The anamorphic widescreen edition is perfectly acceptable, if not really noteworthy. Sharpness and detail are good, but the picture doesn't boast a terrifically well-defined image and there are even a few moments of slight softness.
Luckily, there aren't many flaws besides a little softness. I only spotted a couple of stray instances of specks on the print used, while edge enhancement and pixelation only made one or two appearances in trace amounts. Colors often looked rich and bright, as the colors of the food stood out especially well. A good, if not great presentation.
SOUND: "Tortilla Soup" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.0. I really didn't expect a great deal of activity from the soundtrack, but the film's audio delivered a bit better than I'd expected it would. While the surrounds certainly aren't needed in the film's dialogue-driven interior sequences, there were some moments where the surrounds delivered the sounds of crowds of people or other noises. The rear speakers also occasionally provided the score.
Audio quality was very enjoyable, as the score sounded vivid and lively, coming through crisply and warmly. Dialogue also sounded natural and without any rough sounding moments. A Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack is also included in Spanish.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus that essentially use film-themed images and cover art.
EXTRAS: It's quite dissapointing that there is nothing in the way of supplemental features included on this DVD. I'm suprised that the studio couldn't have at least included a "making of" or its usual "bonus trailers". It's not as if the film wasn't successful in theaters - the low-budget film made 4.4m on a small amount of screens.
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