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"Mistress of Spices" Movie Review |
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Tuesday, 10 January 2006 |
By Timothy Chow
 The Mistress of Spices, a film that debuted at TIFF, from its description, sounded kind of like a Chocolat or a Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water For Chocolate) except Indian-style, which was fine by me since both mentioned films were of high-caliber and extremely entertaining to watch.
Set in Oakland, California, Aishwarya Rai plays our lovely
protagonist, Tilo, a mistress of spices. From the very onset of the
film, with its flashbacks and voiceover narration, director Paul Berges
establishes the world and context in which we come to know Tilo and the
rules she must abide by as a mistress - never allowed to leave her
shop, never allowed to use the spices to her own benefit and never
allowed to touch another person. Of course, as the saying goes, rules
are made to be broken. So when the
Harley-Davidson-riding-architect-hot-hunk-stud-GUH-rebel, Doug (played
by Dylan McDermott), crashes at the entrance of her spice shop, what
can they do but gingerly yet steadily fall in love with each other,
right?
The movie's romance between the two leads isn't very convincing, but
GOD are they pretty. Both Rai and McDermott work well independently,
but together, there's a sense of distance and of unease, as if they're
not quite sure of what to do. The spark that's really evident in Chocolat
between Depp and Binoche is missing, which unfortunately brings the
whole work down considering a large portion of the story is just about
Tilo and Doug falling in love with each other while Tilo desperately
tries to thwart her heart's desires. Fortunately, Santosh Sivan's
camera work is mesmerizing, depicting the arresting arrays of colors in
a series of non-stop exotic and illustrious shots that allow us to not
pay so much attention to the somewhat incoherent romance, and more so
on the spices and the charming encounters with Tilo's regular
customers. A valiant effort, but casting choices, a somewhat weak
script and an awkward storytelling method doomed the movie from its
very first reel. The poster says it all: Rai clutching towards the
spices while McDermott kind of randomly lies around.
3 out of 5 stars
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