La Mentira
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La Mentira (The Lie) - telenovela, 1998). A production of Televisa, this mexican soap opera is one of the most successful and popular series of all times.
A remake of 1965's soap opera with the same title (where the starring roles were held by Enrique Lizalde and Julissa), La Mentira is based on a romance story written by Mexican author Caridad Bravo Adams in 1952 (alternate title of the book: El amor nunca muere aka Love never dies). The original story took place in the Amazonian jungles and Rio de Janeiro, but in the recent TV adaptation the plot is brought in modern day Mexico and the countryside around it.
Plotline: Demetrio Azunsolo arrives in a small remoted village outside Mexico where his beloved half-brother, Ricardo, used to live and grow a tequila plantation, only to find out that the latter had just committed suicide, after being disillusioned by a vain woman. Little by little, and thanks to the inhabitants - who at first are hostile towards him but then become his friends - Demetrio puts together the pieces of the puzzle that led to the tragedy. The clues bring him to Mexico City, in the villa of a wealthy man, Teodoro de Fernandez-Negrete, where Ricardo had spent some time in the past as a trusted worker. According to the info he has in hand, in that house lives the woman because of whom Ricardo put an end to his life. Demetrio meets two young women there, both adopted nieces of the family: the innocent and fragile Virginia and the dynamic and self-confident Verónica. Not sure who of them is the guilty one, Demetrio gets trapped in a series of co-incidences and sly gossip and ends up believing in the end that the woman he is looking for is Verónica. Once acertained, he puts to practice his plan for revenge. He flirts with Verónica, seduces her and makes her fall in love with him so as to marry him. After the wedding, he practically abducts her and brings her to the small remoted village where Ricardo ended his life, decided to make her life a misery and take revenge for his brother's unfair death. Little does he know that he, as well as Verónica, are in fact victims of someone whose angel face hides a demonic soul and who actually was the one responsible for Ricardo's suicide. When he finds out, it seems that all is lost as Verónica abandons him mainly because he didn't trust her and instead got fooled by other people's bad intentions; so he will have to struggle very hard to gain her love back. In the end, love wins, but not without cost.
La Mentira is an exceptionally good soap opera, with strong dialogues (several scenes are particularly faithful to the original book) and excellent performances from all the actors participating.
Trivia: Aarón Hernán, who plays the part of the village's priest, had starred in the 1965 version as well, playing the same part. In that version, the priest was a young man who felt attracted by Veronica's personality and charms (something that also happens in the book). In the modern version, the priest is an old man who simply offers his advice to the starring couple.
Starring actors: Kate del Castillo (Verónica de Fernandez-Negrete), Guy Ecker (Demetrio Azunsolo), Karla Álvarez (Virginia de Fernandez-Negrete), Salvador Pineda (Dr Moguel), Rosa María Bianchi (Sara de Fernandez-Negrete), Sergio Basañez (Juan de Fernandez-Negrete), Eric del Castillo (Don Teodoro de Fernandez-Negrete), Aarón Hernán (Padre Williams), Carlos Cámara (Don Pepe), Silvia Mariscal (Leticia), Tony Bravo (Belot), Tina Romero (Irma Moguel), Luis Gatica (Santiago), Roxana Castellanos (Yadira), Israel Jaitovich (Jacinto), Amparo Garrido (Toña), Blanca Guerra (Miranda), Rodrigo Abed (Ricardo).
