Review of Tortilla Soup

Introduction

This film is a bit of a cross between a remake and a re-interpretation of Ang Lee`s Yin shi nan nu, probably better known as Eat Drink Man Woman. From what I`ve read, I think that it got a very limited cinema release in the UK, although it was popular overseas. The film itself won an Imagen Award for Best Theatrical Feature Film and star Elizabeth Peña won an ALMA Award for supporting actress.

The plot is outlined above.

Video

A 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, which looked decidedly on the soft side from where I was sitting. Although the print used looked very clean, there was a distinct lack of detail quite a lot of the time, and the image almost appeared "fake" now and again.

As to what you get to see on screen, you might have guessed that there are lots of shots of fruit and vegetables, and of people peeling and chopping fruit and vegetables. It`s a kind of porn for chefs and cooks.

Audio

A DD5.1 soundtrack, which as you might imagine is heavily latin influenced, and is very upbeat most of the time. It does sometimes cross the line between original and stereotypical, but on the whole it fits in well with the overall theme of the film. The music is the most exciting thing about the soundtrack, the rest is basically just dialogue pouring from the centre speaker.

Features

Just a trailer, replete with cheese stuffed voice over.

Conclusion

In the introduction, I mentioned that Tortilla Soup was a bit of a cross between a remake and a re-interpretation of Ang Lee`s Eat Drink Man Woman. It actually appears to be more of a cheese-stuffed, dumbed down version of the film, and it would appear that someone put too much sugar in the recipe before they handed it over.

The food and menus for the film were apparently created by US TV chefs, and it really is a case of the food being more interesting than the acting (even though one or two performances have a distinct ham flavour to them). In the end I just didn`t enjoy the film, and would suggest that you seek out Eat Drink Man Woman instead of this film.

The DVD has an average picture and good sound but lacks extras.