A Walk in the Clouds (1995)

A Walk in the Clouds

This is a beautiful and poignant film. It is a film about the unexpected love formed by two people of deferent origins, which interen causes havoc among the girl's family. A family stepped in tradition and pride, but through there love and there families love for there land and the tragedies that befall them due to the father's disdain over his daughter's love for this outsider, a union is formed and the outsider is finely excepted as and loved as there own.
August 28, 2008

One of my favorite movies.

I've watched this movies at least fifty times. I've personally purchased it over twenty times, giving them to friends. If you're looking for a wonderful story, that leaves you feeling great, this is your movie. I'd recommend this movies for everyone. Keanu Reeves is great! July 4, 2008

Did the Amazon reviewer actually watch the movie??

Yes, I agree that this isn't Keenu Reeves best performance. However, the Amazon reviewer's comment about the "silly insect chasing scene with gossamer wings" was just WRONG. What the scene is about is preventing the grapes from freezing by lighting braziers through the vineyard then spreading the heat. And I've seen this done in Germany, France, and Spain, so it is real.

I thought the interactions between the father, the grandfather and the daughter were amazingly done and the woman who plays the mother was superb! July 1, 2008

Fine movie, not so good acting

Great scenery in the movie. The acting is not great, but the story flows, so you end up rooting for love and happiness after all. June 21, 2008

Formulaic romance starring...Napa Valley

Alfonso Arau (Like Water For Chocolate)'s WWII romance A Walk in the Clouds, based on the 1942 Italian film Quattro passi fra le nuvole, explores the intertwined notions of destiny and true love amidst a sprawling vineyard. Paul Sutton (Keanu Reeves) returns home from the front to discover that the woman he married shortly before shipping out (a cameo by Debra Messing from Will & Grace - Season One) isn't the woman he wants to spend his life with; she couldn't handle the realities of war, so she saved his heartfelt letters without reading them.

Before the war, he was a chocolate salesman, but he is dissatisfied with civilian life and suffers from PTSD. Aboard a train, he meets Victoria (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), a beautiful woman traveling alone. She was pursuing her master's degree in literature, but became pregnant. Victoria has nowhere to go but home to her domineering father Alberto and his winery, and Paul offers to be her "husband" to make her pregnancy appear legitimate to her family. Once at the vineyard, Paul is convinced by Don Pedro (Anthony Quinn, apparently reprising his role in Zorba the Greek) to stay and help with the yearly harvest. Paul gradually becomes accepted by Victoria's very traditional Mexican family, and pitches in to help with the backbreaking labor involved in maintaining the vineyard.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy is the waste of what could have been: the romance is strictly by-the-numbers, and Keanu's painfully wooden delivery (he redefines the word "monotone") does little to soften already formulaic dialogue. Painful drunken serenades featuring Reeves and Quinn, an absurdly shot "flap like a butterfly" sequence, and hokey harvest montages featuring a choir chanting "crush the grapes" do little to cleanse the palette. However, the gorgeous twilight shots of Napa Valley (filmed on location at various wineries including Beringer, Duckhorn, Haywood, Mount Vedeer, and Mayacamus) are pure sun-drenched bliss. It's a shame that the script doesn't hold up as well. As with many modern remakes of foreign films such as the recent No Reservations based on Mostly Martha, the producers would have done well to study the source material more closely; the charm and wit that made these films classics in their original languages are lost in translation trying to produce a product geared towards American audiences. A Walk in the Clouds lacks the sensuality and mysticism of Arau's captivating Mexican fable Like Water for Chocolate, or even the American Chocolat (Miramax Collector's Series). If you enjoyed Like Water for Chocolate, then you will likely find some redeeming qualities in A Walk in the Clouds, but for everyone else, I'd recommend a different vintage. May 25, 2008

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