Better Late Then Never

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I didn't have very high expectations when I rented this DVD, but even those expectations were not met. The movie is about a couple that suddenly separates and somehow does not manage life after that. The husband and wife seem to have forgotten how to be independent human beings. The main topic of the film is relationships, but there is nothing innovative or interesting in the way the story is told. On the downside, the actors deliver poor performances although some of them are actually talented (as they have proved in other movies), and the editing is a disaster. Apart from the main narrative, the movie is constantly interrupted by grainy images of the main characters blabbering some platitudes about relationships and even grainier images of a TV psychologist giving inane advice to his viewers. It is hard to develop interest in the story or the characters, and the low-quality of the aesthetic aspects of the film make it a no-go area. I honestly found this movie unbearable and cannot recommend it to anyone.

"Cilantro y Perejil" is, in a way, your typical romantic comedy, but it is so in a very Mexican, light, fun and entertaining way, which is rare in cinema from this country. It might be predictable and not-too-bright, but what it lacks in depth, this film compensates in spice, humor and the sense transmitted through the screen that the people who made it actually tried to do a good movie, and enjoyed it. German Dehesa's interventions are delightful, and lower the saccharine factor in the love stories. The stories complement each other nicely, and each of them is represented by the most famous faces in the new Mexican Cinema. It really is worth seeing just as an accomplishment at its time and a precursor of films like "Sexo, Pudor y Lágrimas".

This film turned out to be a happy finding. The creators of this Mexican movie seemed well attuned to the modern way of life in the big city. Not having a clue as to what to expect, it turned out to be a good way to spend an evening in which all other film prospects didn't seem interesting enough.Susana and Carlos have been married for a while. They have two children and both work. Carlos, whose job involves long hours, hardly has time for his family. As the film starts, everything comes to a head when he arrives home late one night. No sooner is he in, when his cellular phone rings. It's his boss calling. Susana, who feels Carlos spends too much of his time at home talking to his boss, takes his phone away from him. As things get uglier, Carlos agrees to leave. It appears that as a couple, they have come to a dead end because Carlos believes his job is too important.Carlos, who has taken a small house, realizes he can't do anything on his own. Most of the work at home is done by Susana. Carlos is assigned a new assistant who evidently thinks she can take him to bed. Susana, on the other hand, is encouraged by her colleague at work to see other men. When she agrees to do so, it turns out that the man she has chosen is gay. Both Carlos and Susana come to realize, that in spite of their differences, they were meant for each other.Rafael Montero, the director of "Cilantro y Peregil" did a marvelous job with this quick paced comedy. The writing is by Cecilia Perez Grovas and Carolina Rivera, two women that have an ear for the way people live in these frantic times.Damian Bichir, who we had admired in other Mexican films, does an excellent job as Carlos, the harried executive whose life is altered when Susana asks him to leave their home. Arcelia Ramirez makes a wonderful Susana. She is a resourceful actress with a dark beauty that matches her character. Rodolfo Dehesa appears as a psychiatrist who speaks to the camera about modern relationships with humor and it shows he can't even help himself.Rafael Montero shows a talent for his direction of this sunny comedy.

Maybe fans of 'fresa' humor will enjoy this. But other than a few sarcastic bits, it is just a lame sitcom with annoying characters who go through boring situations, with a documentary-within-a-movie splitting up episodes. The documentary bits are sometimes interesting, and sometimes just as lame as everything else. This does not fall in the school of daring, cutting-edge, realistic, sarcastic Latin American cinema. Instead it falls in the same group of movies that sound like they were written by the same people who write telenovelas and latino sitcoms, thinking that they are funny, just because somebody in Televisa likes this crap and wants to keep Mexican people ignorant, so that they do not rebel against the governing status quo. Alright, this sounds far too revolutionary and almost makes the movie sound like it had anything to do with politics or social commentary. It is merely a lame sitcom, stretched out.Not horrible, but not worth your time.