User Reviews

So I randomly flipped open a newspaper one Friday night to look at the movie listings, and on a whim decided to check this one out. I was expecting something simple, dumb, yet enchanting - something in the realm of Chocolat or Bewitched. This, however, was WAY below my expectations, and I think that could have been prevented by simply adding one ingredient - a different director.

Aishwarya is absolutely beautiful, and I'm sure that she can act - when she's given something to work with. Unfortunately her only given function in the movie is to stare wide-eyed out the window of her shop at the world around her. How disappointing. Then there's Dylan McDermott, the beautiful stranger who captures the mistress' attention. He's cute enough to pull off his part well, and seems to be the master of sultry stares. Then comes the myriad of regular customers, bright and interesting personalities that could have been the highlight of this movie if it weren't for the director's insistence on putting random Tilo voice-overs in whenever the customers were about to say something interesting. Was it really necessary for them to be constantly interrupted?

The problem isn't in the story - it's quite enchanting. Banal, yes, but what movie isn't nowadays? The problem was the lack of subtlety. OH NOES! DANGER! THE CAMERA'S SUDDENLY FOCUSSING ON A PILE OF RED CHILI PEPPERS! The problem got so serious that 20 minutes into the movie, the audience (including myself) would laugh at every chili pepper that came onto the screen. Constant flashes forward to events that may or may not happen? Unnecessary. Doug's extremely random back-story that doesn't greatly affect the plot? Unnecessary. The store suddenly collapsing thanks to mysterious unexplained powers? Weird, and again unnecessary. If only Gurinder Chadra, the screenwriter, had directed this. I really enjoyed her Bend it Like Beckham, which nicely mixed cheesy Bollywood cinema with modern "dromedy". I think something much nicer (and much more tasteful) would have been produced.

Paul Mayeda Berges, known for his collaboration with his wife, Gurinder Chadha, on the films: Bend it like Beckham, and Bride and Prejudice, takes a role in the director's chair, in the book-to-movie adaptation: Mistress of Spices.

Raised as a mistress of the spice at a young age, Tilo, moves to San Francisco, and opens an Indian Spices store. Having a second sight, and so being able to see into other people's lives, Tilo is able to use her power of the spice, to help others. However, there are some downsides to her powers. She is never allowed to leave her store, use her powers for her personal endeavor, and most importantly, never to touch the skin of another. One day, she encounters the handsome Doug and begins breaking the rules. In turn for her disobedience, the Spice begins wrecking havoc with her powers.

Mistress of Spices has a bizarre story to tell, but it is at heart, a fairytale of sorts. It is also straight-forward, and not all that deep with emotion, yet it's beautiful too gaze upon. The numerous shot of the spices are spectacular, but this isn't enough to help Mistress of Spices raise its par to become anything exceptional.

Noticeable to all, is Dylan McDermott, who acts well as Doug, a man who has everything, but is yearning for something deeper then his own materialism. However, McDermott is easily out acted by his counterpart Aishwarya Rai. Rai seemingly appears to vent her feelings, but this is exactly the character of Tilo: she has to let the Spices dictate her life, and not her true emotions.

With good cinematography and fairly decent acting, Mistress of Spices has the basics covered. However, while a wonderfully conceived romance, Mistress of Spices lacks the passion required to truly engage the viewers with the love-struck characters.

It is just an OK movie. She looked good enough,and loved the various saris and costumes that she wore throughout the film, although I am not too sure about the red dress thing that she wore for the seduction scene with her hair down. I guess that is meant to portray her sexual attraction, but I actually think she looks much better in her other outfits, whereas the vampy look is not quite..... My main problem with the movie lies with Tilo (Rai), and what is it that she sees in Doug (McDermott) that actually makes her want to break the rules of the spices. As far as I can gather, she just saw him outside her shop, their eyes met, and somehow she is meant to be moved? I just find that part quite unconvincing. I just cannot get whether there was actually any love involved. Seems more like lust.... she wanted her night of passion before going back to the spices. The acting was OK overall.

First of all I do not know how I landed up to watch this unbearable movie...

The characters are really weak, The plot nothing great. And certain moment seem to have been stolen from other movies like Chocalat!!!

The script and direction are weak and did not hold me for more then 15 minutes.

However I still watched the film till end.

How do such filmmakers get financed? I guess there are brave people like me around who make up the audience -maybe thats how.

please avoid. Save your money and spare your being...

I also saw this at the Toronto Inter. Film Festival last week. There were three screenings of the movie, each sold out as far as I know. Although Toronto has a very large Indian population, Indians were a small percentage of the audience at my screening.

A few additional comments to the earlier review: The director, producer, author, and Dylan McDermott were at my screening to answer questions. Apparently Gurinder has wanted to make a movie of the book ever since it was published. Chitra Divakaruni, the author, said she was very happy with the movie even though in some ways it is different from the book. The movie tried to retain the spirit of the book even though some details have changed. For example, the young Tilo is captured by pirates in the movie, but escapes very quickly and swims to the island; when she goes to Oakland she keeps her own body (thank God!)and doesn't turn into an old woman, etc.--in other words,the movie tries to keep to the main story and avoids complications as much as possible.

The main problem I had with the movie is that it is very important to accept the magical atmosphere. But the movie starts with Tilo already in the spice shop in Oakland, then shows how she got there in a series of flashbacks. If you don't already know the story, I think that makes it harder to accept. Presenting the story in chronological order, as the book does, might have been better since you could understand the magic from the beginning instead of starting off in Oakland (which is not a very magical place to most people).

Another issue was the stories of the various customers--these stories are necessary to show the various magical effects of the spices, but too much of that would distract you from the main story. I think the balance was just about right, but there were some loose ends--I would like to have seen just a bit more of the Padma Lakshmi character, for example. It was these side stories that added the humor to the movie.

I am a huge Aishwarya fan, and I was happy. She did a very good job, and for once the director allowed the camera to spend some time focusing on her face instead of cutting away immediately, and there were a lot of close-ups. Naturally Aishwarya was in almost every scene.

The story itself is fairly simple. Since Aishwarya can't leave the store, there's not a lot of action--how many times can you pick up a handful of spices and make it interesting? But you got involved in the characters and wanted them to get together. When they finally have their night of passion, they kiss almost everywhere but the lips...I assume to keep the taboo of Indian films. The director made the wise choice of going for close-ups as Dylan undresses her--very erotic.