Recipes to Stay Together
Recipes to Stay Together
| 31 December 1996 (USA)
Recipes to Stay Together Trailers

"Cilantro y perejil" is a comedy about couples from the same family, hit by the economic crisis in Mexico. The plot turns around the eternal question of whether it is worth it to live as a couple. The conclusions are fun, unpredictable and very human. After ending a ten-year marriage, Carlos and Susana try to fall in love with other people without success. As the days go by, Carlos realizes that without Susana he is unable to do many things, including distinguishing cilantro from parsley.

Reviews
sh_bronstein

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.

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Luis Lemus

The film "Cilantro y Perejil" falls under the romantic comedy genre. The title of the film suggest the theme of the story so similar but yet so different. This is a comedy about couples and their definition of what love is and the believe that there is that right person just for you. We begin the story with an interview that Susana is having with Nora about what love is and what does a person feel when he or she sees their other half, for a school project that she is putting together. As Susana states all these things about what a person should feel, Nora asks her if she feels that for Carlos her husband. Susana Replies with a no. The story starts to develop when Susana divorces her husband Carlos. After the divorce they try to rebuild their own love life. They date different people through work, friends and a singles club that Nora sights them up for; to find out that they have nothing in common with the people they date. After all of that at the end they realize that they always had what they were looking for.As the film develops it touches in many social issues throughout the documentary that Nora is filming for her school project or on the film itself. Family life is put to question and the problems that the children face after their parents split up. The complication of love and romance and how globalization has changed it is also one of the issues that are being address in the film. Over all the director did a great job on bringing the different issues together on the film. In combination with the smooth editing and the technique of a film within a film. Bottom line is a great film to watch

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jotix100

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.

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demented_peruvian

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.

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