A Walk in the Clouds (1995)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Anthony Quinn, Gian Carlo Gianini, Keanu Reeves and Debra Messing lead an unfamiliar cast in a compelling romantic drama of two people who accidentally meet in the aftermath of changes which the second world war brought to California. At one end of the spectrum Gianini plays a traditional Mexican father trying to hold onto a nineteenth century Mexican family aspiration in the Napa Valley. At the other end Reeves plays an Illinois orphan whose failed one night San Francisco marriage and severe battle shell shock make him yearn for what he considers a traditional home and family. The two lock first philosophy and then violent horns and traditions in a series of unrelated, unexpected melodramatic events which bring Keanu closer to Gianini's daughter thus forever changing both of their outlooks on life. Brilliantly photographed, edited and acted.

When you put Anthony Quinn and Giancarlo Giannini together, you expect some magic. These are two GIANTS of the screen from Europe who have put together some of the most memorable performances on film. I think they could read the dictionary and make it sound important.Poor Keanu Reeves. His scenes with these two cinematic giants just showed how really out of his depth he was. He seems like an earnest guy, and he has found some roles that suit him, (The Matrix series.) but this was WAY over his head. If they had found someone else for the role, I think they could have pulled it off. That and.....The end? REALLY?! The story was quite a stretch from the start, but I felt like they kept it moving along, and there were some well written scenes. But when they set everything on fire at the end, it was just dumb and ridiculous.I will say this is one of the prettiest movies you will ever see. It's a bit spoiled by too much CGI and enhanced trickery. My guess is they got tired of waiting for nature to come up with some beautiful sunsets for them. But the rest of the cinematography is really good.For romantics only. (And REALLY big Keanu fans!)

In terms of what "A Walk in the Clouds" does right and wrong, it's like "Memoirs of a Geisha," a dissimilar romance that came out a decade later. The acting is great. The cinematography is breathtaking. The film works with pure magic. But there's a big problem: the screenplay is terrible.Paul Sutton (Keanu Reeves) is a war hero returning from the Pacific to be reunited with a girl he married "just so I could have someone to write to" (Debra Messing). Realizing that he's entered into a nightmare, he resumes his job as a chocolate salesman. On a bus to Sacremento for his job, he meets Victoria Aragon (Aitana Sanchez-Guijon), a Mexican beauty who is pregnant and unmarried. This would be troubling for anyone, but Victoria's father, Alberto (Giancarlo Giannini) is so traditional he makes Jerry Falwell look positively liberal. Because Paul is such a nice guy, he agrees to pose as her husband for a day, then leave her, which would hopefully solve the problem. Of course, they fall in love, which makes the situation even more complicated.The acting is solid. Many people give Keanu Reeves a hard time about his performances, and that's a little unfair. True, he's no Sean Penn, and I doubt that anyone will mention his name and "Oscar" in the same sentence any time soon, but given the right role, he can be effective. This was true of "Speed," "The Matrix," and "The Devil's Advocate," which I consider his best performance. "A Walk in the Clouds" should be among that list. It's easily the weakest of the three, but his performance is not. Paul is so immensely likable that it would turn the movie into a case of sugar shock, except that Reeves keeps Paul so genuine that it is impossible to not like him. His co-star, Aitana Sanchez-Guijon, is solid, although their chemistry is more of the "great friends" variety, not "star-crossed lovers." The other main actors, Giancarlo Giannini and Anthony Quinn, are excellent. Giannini is Oscar-worthy as Alberto. He's rigidly traditional, but it's his love of his family that makes him so. Ironically, however, it makes him blind to the needs of others. His father, Don Pedro (Quinn), is like the rest of his family: wise and more open. He always on hand to give advice on love and marriage to the would-be husband. He is also present in a hilarious scene where he gets Paul (and himself) very drunk and has him sing a traditional Mexican courting song outside Victoria's window.Alfonso Arau made the art-house hit, "Like Water for Chocolate," a film that I haven't seen, but is in my Netflix queue (and has been for some time). The middle part is magic, and it's Arau's talent that speaks to that. Unfortunately, the beginning is clunky, and the ending is completely over-the-top. Not all of this can be blamed on Arau, however. It's his first mainstream American film, so he was probably forced to make some concessions at the behest of the producers. However, even they should have realized that some of the lines needed to be rewritten.Overall, it works, but not as well as you'd hope.

There are very few truly great romance movies. They have to have to have humor, along with the heart. They should have good acting, but mediocre acting is usually acceptable in romance movies. Most importantly, they have to control their clichéd corny cheesiness. Romance movies have a hard time from avoiding all the clichés, and this had some of the worst, clichéd, cheesiest moments ever. Unrealistic turn of events leading to a contrived, terrible love story.Paul (Keanu Reeves) has just gotten home from war, and all he wants to see is his wife. Unfortunately, his wife is nowhere to be seen, and is actually at home avoiding his letters. There was really no point in even giving him a wife, because she's out of the picture for the most part, and we move on to the actual plot, which is a shame, because Debra Messing is actually kind of amusing in a ditsy, over the top role....too bad. Paul is on his way to a grape field for his chocolate selling work, when he accidentally helps, falls on, gets thrown up on, and switches tickets with this nice young Hispanic woman, Victoria. After many more odd turn of events, he ends up pretending to be married to her. Then the plot switches to a slightly better, but still awful version of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Victoria's Mexican father is very built on Spanish beliefs, so naturally he doesn't like Keanu Reeves, the gringo. The plot develops, Keanu Reeves remains emotionless in his performance, and it only gets stupider as it goes along. Anthony Quinn is annoying, but gives a pretty good performance, and so does Giancarlo Gianni as the overprotective father. Other than a few performances and an interesting musical score, this is a real loser of a film.My rating: * out of ****. 100 mins. PG-13 for sensuality.