Eratta Sibetta

An adaptation of the novel Love in the Time of Cholera into a Film was going to be a tough act to follow. The first couple pages of the book are breathtakingly alluring and so beautifully written it quickened my heart. But as the novel continues, I just couldn’t wait to finish it. The chapters are dreary and boring and presented in the literary style most old time writers liked to do. Where they would just play with words and drone on in powerful descriptive displays of wonderful writing. And for that reason alone, I was curious, then charmed by the unfolding story. It began to get tedious because nothing of great importance happened. There was no sense of urgency for me, though the descriptive writing was potent and powerful. I felt a lack of engagement with any of the women Florentino was committing with his sexual exploits. Almost as though the Author didn’t want to spend too much time on the scenes as they happened. There was instead more focus on Florentino’s character which was a single-minded bore. Now, adapting such a difficult novel into film would be a great feat, and I was hugely disappointed that the writers tried to follow the novel to a T. The acting was quite wooden and the makeup was awful. Loved the costumes but the dialogue….you get the idea. If you loved the novel and hope to be dazzled by the film you’ll be disappointed. It felt flat watching it. I have watched many films that showcase a beautiful synergy between big budget Latin American films and how they tie in with the era of that period, such as The Frieda Khalo film or was it Peron? The one in which Madonna sings the lamentable song: ‘don’t cry for me Argentina’ or even The Painted Veil A Fabulous Chinese/English film and this film just kinda missed the mark for me. Such a pity because it could have dazzled. Anyone who watched the film Silence (2016) with Liam Neeson or The Mission (1986) with Jeremy Irons and Robert de Niro will get an idea of what I’m trying to say here. Films of this calibre require someone willing to invest in those subtleties of telling a love story with an almost restrained detachment and yet provocative displays of passion. It is after all a very difficult book to read on account of the subject matter and the protagonist’s sexual deviant behaviour and dalliances with over 600 women and underage girls. How many might regard this novel as a classic is puzzling, but hey, each to their own!

Not for me. I felt no urgency while reading this little novella, it was a clean novel with little to get me excited. The story was neat and traditionally Irish, but I felt something was missing. In fact, the first few pages were rather interesting and I bought myself a copy. Curious to see if this novella matched the wonderfulreviews it got. A great disappointment for me! Personally speaking, I would have preferred the book to have been written from the perspective of the girls labouring in the convent, with one of the girls as the main protagonist. I remember watching the Film, The Magdalene Sisters when it came out back in 2002, written and directed by Peter Mullan and was shocked at the cruelty of the nuns, or how the Catholic Church allowed the atrocities committed there, to carry on for so long without doing anything about it. And so, from that premise, I feel a story about The Magdalene Laundries and the girls there, would have perhaps made this story viable. As it was, Bill Furlong, the main protagonist, seemed to be a descent enough man, raising a family and then later found himself caught up in the intrigues of what was going on at the convent. I think the Novella could have been stretched out a bit more to add some depth to the characters. Everything seemed rushed and the characters given little commission to help develop the story even more. For instance, there was no indication as to how or why the girl at the convent was locked up in a barn other than the fact she'd been playing a game of hide and seek and then found herself locked up. No dramatics about the backstory on that or why the girls could be cruel to each other under such strident circumstances. Why did other girls lock her up? I'm assuming it was the other girls at the convent who locked her up for a dare, but whatever it was, there was no mention of it. And even less about her baby and where the baby was being kept and by whom. Now, realistically, writing a novel based on a story set at the Magdalene Laundries and the convent, and nuns who run the show might have been a better option. And so, writing another story on this situation and even improving on Peter Mullen's story about the same, would have been understandable. But perhaps, Claire Keegan didn't want to do that, so, she focused on Bill Furlong telling the story from his perspective. Either the story was too short, or could have been sharper, with say, more information about how or why the church and the nuns handed out such harsh treatments to the girls and then Mother Superior pretending to be concerned about the situation, was quite uncharacteristic, but not surprising, because we have all seen old films about their voracious appetites for vetting punishments to the girls in their care. I should know because I was sent to a Catholic boarding school at age 11 and was punished mercilessly during study period for reading a Mills and Boon, which Id hidden between the pages of a text book pretending to study. I was made to kneel in the schools main forecourt in front of the school where stood a statue of Mary, cradling the baby Jesus, for 5 hours, then sent to bed without any supper! The only reason remember that so well is because the forecourt was paved with rough cobblestone stones and my knees were bleeding and grazed afterwards so badly I spent a week in the infirmary.