Transferring a magic-realist novel onto the big screen is no easy task, as this romantic drama demonstrates. At least director Paul Mayeda Berges and screenwriting partner Gurinder Chadha had the sense to cast Aishwarya Rai, who starred in their musical comedy Bride & Prejudice: her undoubted screen presence keeps this consistently watchable. She’s Tilo, an apparently psychic spice shop owner living outside San Francisco who’s taken a vow as a “Mistress Of Spice” never to leave the shop – or, implicitly, date handsome architects like Doug (Dylan McDermott).
There’s promise in their rom-com-style attraction, but this sits awkwardly with the supernatural themes: magic and realism just don’t belong together here. Although with all the English actors trailing in and out of the shop pretending to be American, it’s even harder to believe in some of the locations than in the magic…