Story Overview

Adapted from the 1985 novel by Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera is a lyrical romantic drama set in the early twentieth century, chronicling an extraordinary love story that unfolds over more than half a century. The film explores love as a force that defies time, logic, and social convention, revealing both its beauty and its destructive intensity.

The narrative centers on a prolonged love triangle between Dr. Juvenal Urbino and Florentino Ariza, portrayed by Benjamin Bratt and Javier Bardem. Their shared devotion to the same woman stretches across 51 years, nine months, and four days, exposing radically different interpretations of love—one rooted in stability and social order, the other driven by obsession, longing, and unwavering patience.

As decades pass, Love in the Time of Cholera presents love not as an idealized emotion but as a consuming condition, capable of shaping entire lives. Through themes of desire, waiting, fidelity, and emotional endurance, the film offers a haunting meditation on the price of loving deeply and the thin line between romance and affliction.