While Walking Through The Clouds... Review on A Walk In The Clouds Movie

The winding road pleasantly curved around the sea shore and a backdrop of sunset-flushed hills...the lone pedestrian in uniform walks down the road towards a destination unknown....

the truck almost glides on the asphalt and the scene fades with all its mellow fruitfulness into the sunset.

THE STORY:

The year is 1945. Paul Sutton(Keanu Reeves) plays a young man who has just returned from serving his nation in world war II. still reeling from the horrors of the war, Paul craves for a simple life with his wife Betty(Debra Messing). however, Paul realises mistake of marrying betty on a pre-war hysteria impulse. she neither shares his vision of a happy life nor does she want him to do anything but sell chocolates, even if he does not care to do it.

paul leaves betty to try and collect his thoughts and see if he could come to a compromise. but what began as a simple time out for recollection comes to a halt when paul meets the elegant and utterly exquisite Victoria Aragon(Aitana Sanchez-Gijon).

Victoria is gravely distraught young woman. while away at college, Victoria had fallen in love with her professor who abandoned her when she became pregnant. victoria was brought up in a very conservative mexican wine-merchant family...the very thought of conceiving a child out of a wedlock is unacceptable. so she is on her way home full of shame and fearful of her father's rage.

paul offers to help... by posing as her husband, he would stay there for a day and then abandon her...in this way, the blame and the disgrace would be automatically shifted on him and victoria would be saved. seeing no other way out, victoria agrees to take the plunge... a plunge that both soon realise would turn out to be more than a one-day affair.

THE MOVIE:

A WALK IN THE CLOUDS is best described as an atmospheric romance...the scenery, the lighting, the presentation have a ripeness about it that is at once innocent and sensual.

the film offers a romance... of people finding love... the love of family for an orphan,a

father's love for his daughter and finally that between a man and a woman. love in its various representations comes through as a permeating guiding force that gives

the movie a harmonic chord and binds it for good.

this is a romance... so to expect anything else out of it, would be a folly. the movie has all the elements that make it a classic of this genre.

this is the first American film from director Alfonso Arau, who previously made the international hit Like Water For Chocolate.

THE CAST:

Keanu Reeves

as paul sutton....gives a performance which is a far-cry from his action hero image. the movie portrays him as a man who is eager to help in whatever way he can. never having a family, he realises the importance of what victoria has at stake and tries his best to make sure that she does not lose it all.

Aitana Sanchez-Gijon

as Victoria Aragon... plays the role of the abandoned expecting daughter from a traditional family to perfection. her frame fits the screen so beautifully, one is reminded of the olden days screen goddesses who looked like they could not be people from this earth.

Giancarlo Giannini

as Alberto Aragon... comes across as the over-protective father, who loves his family to madness but has difficulty in expressing it. he is the perfect foil for the rest of the

family who take to paul like fish to water. he is cynical about the couple and firmly

believes there is something amiss.

Anthony Quinn

as Del Pedro... is the prototype patriarch... at once wise but whimsical. his belief in the power of love and the eventual triumph of earnest over cynism provides a ground for comic relief as well as well-directed recollections.

WHY SHOULD ONE WATCH THIS MOVIE?

first and foremost for the breath-taking cinematography... the film is a visual delight... drenched as each scene is in warm tones of wine and golden sunshine. it is a joy to behold.. specially the scene of the grape crushing ceremony after the harvest... a scene straight out of the leaves of the times of bachchus.

anthony quinn shines brilliantly in the movie and over shadows everyone else including the couple... his presence makes the film much more than a mere romance... but rather transforms it into a piece of work truly worth thinking over about it.

finally the story and the handling... well some may say its hackneyed.. (where how else should it be, pray tell me??? how else should a love story be) some may say its just marshmellows.. but I beg to differ. the film is doused with romance but it never gets on your nerves, never seems dramatic and the justifications provided for the course of action is definitely believable.

thus, I would say...the film is a great watch for any day when you feel the need to see something visually arresting and emotionally soothing. when watched it right (i mean with like minded people or in the correct mental frame) the film is sure to evoke images of love .. lost , found, cherished and discovered that would leave you connected with it one way or the other.