Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

MartinHafer Aishwarya Rai is a gorgeous woman and one of my favorite actresses. Having seen her in quite a few films already, I was excited to see "Mistress of Spices". Unfortunately, while Miss Rai and Dylan McDermott do a lovely job and the direction is fine, I felt the story itself was a bit of a letdown. Whether or not you'll struggle with the plot depends a lot on you and your feelings about mysticism and spices. Frankly, I found this to be very problematic.The film finds Rai in San Francisco running a spice shop. However, she is one strange lady, as she has both the ability to foresee the future AND use spices in an almost magical manner. However, she believes that these skills depend on her obeying some very rigid and bizarre rules. First, she cannot ever leave the shop! Second, she cannot touch people nor let them touch her. Third, she must only use these powers to help others and never to help herself. As for herself, her needs are completely irrelevant and she has a profound obligation to her clients and not herself. This naturally makes for a very lonely life, though she only seems to notice this when she meets McDermott--then the emptiness of her existence and longing for more becomes apparent.As I said above, I didn't like the mystical angle and this limited my ability to get into the plot. It's a shame, as the film was quite romantic and lovely to watch--it just, unfortunately, made little sense and seemed chock full of 'mumbo-jumbo'. I guess I am just too scientifically-minded to let myself go on this one.This is a case of a movie that looked great but just was sunk by a silly and impossible to believe plot.

saba2115 In spite of a very heavy schedule I took time off to watch this because I was curious to see how a film would handle the fantastical elements of the book.I am sorry to say this so baldly: the film borders on the absurd in some parts and proved to be a damp squib in others despite the (ridiculous)numerous shots of bright red hot chilli peppers in almost every frame.There was absolutely no chemistry between the two main characters,bunches of hot chilli peppers notwithstanding. I have no doubt Aishwarya has thousands of loyal fans who would defend her "acting talent" but again I failed to see any evidence of it in this movie.That the director is a novice, a wanna be, and could do with some training is a given. He simply did not know how to handle material so rich in possibilities. He lost every opportunity in the book to make the characters come alive. Even worse, he fails to lift the movie from being a mere depiction of absurd hocus pocus to one where magical elements would seem almost natural even in the humdrum life of a Western city.In the end, I felt impelled to laugh every time I saw Aish go up to the window to gaze out wordlessly with a bunch of red peppers hanging behind her.Perhaps the director believed he could ride on the bandwagon of success that all Indian things seem to have currently but he seems to have miscalculated his own ability to interpret a story such as this even with wife Gurinder standing by his side.

alan-culpitt What to say of this film? Well first the good bits. The story is an engaging fairy tale shot through with the kind of messy but engaging humanity that only India and Indians can bring. A sensuous feast for the eyes (I enjoyed the film whilst downing a bottle of wine with my other half) there are some gorgeous shots with piles of spices and herbs you can almost smell on the screen. Zhora Sehgal is always great and pops up in all sorts of films as "miscellaneous old Indian lady" and Aishwariya Rai is quite astonishingly loose-the-thread-of-what-you-were-talking-about beautiful.On the other hand Dylan McDermott is awful, utterly wooden and unconvincing as the architect-biker. Check out one shot where he looks utterly ridiculous with his crash helmet on. The ending's a bit of a disappointment too.All in all worth getting out on video and sitting back and revelling in the sensuous side of the film

carmenjones411 I really do not understand why people say this film wasn't good, i think that aishwarya is a target because her movies don't offer any steamy love scenes, although i must say to her credit, she and Dylan have a love scene that is probably the sexiest i've ever seen without kissing or nudity, she is like a breath of fresh air because she proves that an actress can make it without compromising her beliefs, my biggest wish is that people will take the time and give this woman and her films a chance, the acting in this film is so top-notched, it couldn't have been easy to make a film interesting were all the action takes place in a spice store , but it succeeds, also look out for the the black actors in this film, they were wonderful, the only flaw was padma lakshmi, she is the worst actress i've ever seen, to old for the part, and next to aishwarya she looks like a rusty old lawn chair.