Like Water For Chocolate (15)

This is humourous yet highly sensitive film set on a ranch in Mexico during a civil war (not sure when - appears to be early 20th century). A bit cinderella-esque, the lead female is bound by an archaic family tradition to look after her widowed mother until her death: she can never marry. She spends her young life dutifully cooking for the family and only rebels when she falls in love. As you would expect this very soon becomes a film centred round love denied. The quirky element is that, without any real intention on her part, all of her emotions (love, bitterness, frustration) somehow find their way into the food she prepares. The scenes this creates are always fun. There is one wonderful scene where she makes a meal for her would-be lover and the family. She is full of longing when she prepares it and the resultant dish affects everyone: the evil mother mellows and the lover realises the depth of her love but the real fun is with the younger sister. For some reason she is unusually susceptible to the food. As its effects take hold she starts getting hot and bothered at the table before eventually dashing out to take a shower in the cubicle outside. So hot is she that steam billows from the cubicle. The steam drifts across the plains to a distant calvary unit engaged in battle. The general catches the scent and halts in his tracks before turning his horse round and galloping off to find her. As he approaches the ranch, the steaming shower-room explodes and with, dashing virility, he plucks her, naked, from the wreckage before galloping off into the distance - it's surreal, amusing and erotic. Having read the book from which it is adapted, I think that this is a rare example of the film exceeding the book.