The House of the Spirits (1994)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This was a silly movie - the mother had to be at least 10 years younger than the father, and yet they had her age so much quicker and die first ??The main character was a horrible man - and yet the mother says to the daughter, about the father, 'it isn't malice'... What !? He is nothing but malicious. The character was never shown to do one good thing.There is no romanticism here... masochism maybe... He was a horrible man and I could see no reason why Clara would have loved him.There was no point to this movie, unless it is to encourage women to punish themselves by loving evil men.Watching this was a big waste of my time.

Of course the head of the household dynasty is conservative and controlling. Of course his wife is his only "humanizing" influence on him. Of course his daughter falls in love with the one man who threatens him most. Of course he catches the man and whips him. Of course this whole family is almost completely torn apart by this "patron's" single-minded authoritarianism. Of course his wife has psychic powers... uh, wait! What? So what's the point of the hocus pocus? Of course! It is so that the movie (and book I assume) can have "spirituality". As if we need that.I was never once interested in any of the cardboard characters who were moved around like chess pieces in this movie in order to further the long-winded plot.

The House Of The Spirits would be be for the 18 crowd. I found this movie to be a tedious and rather pointless movie. To me, I saw little purpose in this movie. There are many actors and actresses which I love to see are in this movie. Stars such as Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Vanessa Redgrave and Antonio Banderas are in this flick. The House Of Spirits is a long movie. I believe that 20 minutes could have been edited out. Yes, The House of the Spirits movie does give one insight as to how people in Chile live. I was disappointed to have so many of my favorite stars in a pointless film. This is definitely a movie to have on TV and play cards to or have another activity going on. If you don't have anything else to do but relax, watch it. I give The House Of the Spirits three thumbs up.

I had the pleasure of catching this movie on Netflix after almost 13+ years. I was only 14 the last time my cousin, sister and I had sat together one warm summer afternoon and watched this on HBO. After that I didn't remember the name of the movie, just knew enough to know that Meryl Streep was in it. The movie made a mark on my childhood, I was deeply engrossed by the mystical capabilities on Streep. Her poignance and courage in the movie paved the way for much of the artsy feeling I enjoyed. Years later I still love the movie, frankly because it brought back memories of my childhood and I got a chance to relive it all.