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.
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.