Excellent Characters

Probably the thing that struck me most about Like Water for Chocolate was that Rosaura's flatulence noises sounded very fake and seemed to be emanating from somewhere else   the characters were very well realized.  

This film portrays many different characters with many different personalities and behaviors that are very effective when they interact.  For starters, you have the evil Mama Elena who is a real jerk throughout the entire movie and it was so easy to hate her from the very beginning.  (Love that character.)  Then you've got the complicated forbidden love story going on between Tita and Pedro, made even more complicated when Dr. Brown is thrown into the mix.  You have Rosaura who at first serves as just a mere barrier between Pedro and Tita, but then begins starting a whole new problem by slowly turning into a character not unlike her mother's, Mama Elena.  And of course we can't forget Gertrudis, who provides some comic relief, but also some sage advice to the protagonist and heroine of the story, Tita.  The movie handles all these characters expertly and is able to draw you into them right from the beginning.  

I also found the magical food aspect of the film to be pretty clever and fun.  I enjoyed seeing how Tita's own emotions were translated differently to whomever was eating her food.  One of my favorite scenes is early on at the wedding of Pedro and Rosaura where everyone expresses feelings of depression and disgust caused by the food and then scrambles over to the bridge to vomit.  
                                   

Memorize this image:

Now see if you can sleep without a nightlight.