The full series scores a definite 10 for everything: Story, casting, production values, and engagement of the audience. If the DVD set were only two hours longer...
On the eve of Juan Vellarde's entrance to a seminary, he yields to temptation and makes love to Luciana, a pretty maid in his parents' home. When she discovers six weeks later that she is pregnant, his mentally ill, religious fanatic mother throws her out and prevents him from finding this out. She is homeless when giving birth, so in desperation she leaves the baby in front of a gated house in an affluent suburb.
22 years later when Luciana is a successful fashion designer, her long-lost daughter comes to her company and is hired as a model. She immediately draws the attention of her stepbrother, who also works for Luciana. Padre Juan is transferred back to Mexico City and Luciana encounters him and his mother when visiting the orphanage to give her regular (generous) donation. A sinister man from Luciana's past also turns up and -- as always in Mexican novelas -- the truth will come out and play dominoes with everyone's emotions.
Helena Rojo and Adele Noriega are perfectly matched as Luciana and Christina. Their mother-daughter chemistry equals the degree to which they look as though they could be related and clearly led to their being cast in the same relationship in AMOR REAL. The other stand-out performances in this production belong to the late Marga Lopez as the mad Ana Joaquina who stops at nothing -- including murder -- to torment Luciana and prevent her from reclaiming her daughter, Cesar Evora as the noble Padre Juan whose simple life of serving God becomes complicated with emotions he never expected to feel, and to Cynthia Klitbo as Tamara, the woman who selfishly interferes with Christina's happiness. Enrique Rocha, normally the primary villain, takes a back seat to the females of that species in this series. His Nicholas is almost harmless by comparison.
The DVD includes the original title song and enough of the story to make sense, although viewers of the original series will be disappointed at the shortened prologue. the omission of some of the most marvelous confrontations between Luciana and Ana Joaquina and the lack of "epiloque" where we learn the latter's fate.
Watch for this one on late-night TV or another daypart on another Univision-owned network.
On the eve of Juan Vellarde's entrance to a seminary, he yields to temptation and makes love to Luciana, a pretty maid in his parents' home. When she discovers six weeks later that she is pregnant, his mentally ill, religious fanatic mother throws her out and prevents him from finding this out. She is homeless when giving birth, so in desperation she leaves the baby in front of a gated house in an affluent suburb.
22 years later when Luciana is a successful fashion designer, her long-lost daughter comes to her company and is hired as a model. She immediately draws the attention of her stepbrother, who also works for Luciana. Padre Juan is transferred back to Mexico City and Luciana encounters him and his mother when visiting the orphanage to give her regular (generous) donation. A sinister man from Luciana's past also turns up and -- as always in Mexican novelas -- the truth will come out and play dominoes with everyone's emotions.
Helena Rojo and Adele Noriega are perfectly matched as Luciana and Christina. Their mother-daughter chemistry equals the degree to which they look as though they could be related and clearly led to their being cast in the same relationship in AMOR REAL. The other stand-out performances in this production belong to the late Marga Lopez as the mad Ana Joaquina who stops at nothing -- including murder -- to torment Luciana and prevent her from reclaiming her daughter, Cesar Evora as the noble Padre Juan whose simple life of serving God becomes complicated with emotions he never expected to feel, and to Cynthia Klitbo as Tamara, the woman who selfishly interferes with Christina's happiness. Enrique Rocha, normally the primary villain, takes a back seat to the females of that species in this series. His Nicholas is almost harmless by comparison.
The DVD includes the original title song and enough of the story to make sense, although viewers of the original series will be disappointed at the shortened prologue. the omission of some of the most marvelous confrontations between Luciana and Ana Joaquina and the lack of "epiloque" where we learn the latter's fate.
Watch for this one on late-night TV or another daypart on another Univision-owned network.