The new Prime Video series The House Of The Spirits is the latest adaptation of Isabel Allende’s sprawling debut novel, which covers four generations of the Trueba family, interacting with historic events in Chile’s history, mixed with a fair amount of spiritual storytelling.
Opening Shot: A woman walks up to a mansion whose outside is overgrown with vines. When she walks in, she sees it in pristine condition.
The Gist: The woman walking through the mansion (Rochi Hernández) is injured, having escaped from a traumatic situation. She sees the ghost of her grandmother, Clara del Valle (Dolores Fonzi). She finds a trunk full of notebooks, which were Rosa’s journals, documentation of her life starting in the 1920s, when Clara (Francesca Turco) was just a child. The woman is determined to write a book based on those journals.
We then flash back to the time of Clara’s first journal entries. At this point, she’s already showing her clairvoyant abilities, and she’s the only one to see her uncle, who is returning from Africa, walk into the family’s church during Thursday Mass. It’s only after they get back from mass do they find out that Clara’s uncle died in Africa, with his body being transported back to Chile with his possessions. Those possessions include a puppy, which becomes one of Clara’s closet companions.
Clara’s older sister Rosa (Chiara Parravicini) has an ethereal presence, to the point where even her family calls her Rosa the Beautiful. Among the many men who are drawn to her, Esteban Trueba (Alfonso Herrera) charms her the most. He vows to come back and marry Rosa after he finds gold on a months-long prospecting dig.
Clara and Rose’s father, Severo (Eduard Fernández) wins his campaign for a senate seat, having to go against his moral code and take some bribes along the way. The night of his victory party, though, Clara sees a sign that someone else in the family will soon die. While her family humors Clara’s claims of clairvoyance, they assure her that her vision won’t come true.
Soon, though, Rosa gets a cold, which suddenly gets worse after she drinks some tea with brandy. The doctor suspects that the brandy was poisoned, and Severo knows that was intended for himself. When the doctor performs an autopsy on Rosa at the mansion, Clara witnesses it; it’s so traumatic that Clara refuses to speak for years.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Based on Isabel Allende’s 1982 novel The House Of The Spirits, the new series was created by Francisca Alegria and Fernanda Urrejola, with Allende and Eva Longoria among the EPs. It’s not the first adaptation of the book; there was a 1993 film starring Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Winona Ryder, Glenn Close and Antonio Banderas. The series has a similar feeling to the recent adaptation of One Hundred Years Of Solitude.
Our Take: It’s hard to boil down a multi-generational epic novel like The House Of The Spirits into something that makes sense as a limited series, but it does seem like Alegria and Urrejola have done it. It does the same thing the novel did, which was use Clara’s life and journals as the through-line to examine one family’s journey through Chile’s history over half a century.
The story also centers on Esteban Trueba, as he ends up marrying Clara (Nicole Wallace) when she grows up. As the Trueba family goes forward through the decades, they’ll interact with the events of the country’s history, but also Clara’s clairvoyance will come into play, as she often predicts what’s going to happen, and fight against people who don’t believe in her psychic abilities.
Again, it’s a lot to cover. But the creators take on the story, with Allende’s input, in a considered manner. They don’t move things too slowly, and use Rosa’s granddaughter’s narration as a way to push the story forward. Fans of the novel my quibble with what’s missing from this version, but for people not familiar with the story, there is plenty of character and plot development to hold their interest.
Performance Worth Watching: Chiara Parravicini really has a presence as Rosa, and we’d imagine that Clara is going to have visions of her sister even as she gets older.
Sex And Skin: None in the first episode. Even the autopsy scene is respectful.
Parting Shot: As Esteban wonders why little Clara isn’t responding to his questions, Clara’s granddaughter says in her narration, “In that moment she knew that her destiny and that of Esteban Trueba would be linked forever.”
Sleeper Star: Aline Küppenheim plays Clara’s mother Nivea, who, like all matriarchs, holds sway over everyone in the family, including her politician husband.
Most Pilot-y Line: When the doctor explains what will happen during Rosa’s autopsy, he assures Severo that he won’t cut open her face.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The House Of The Spirits is a well-acted, beautifully-shot adaptation of Allende’s classic novel that takes its time to luxuriate in the lives of Clara and Esteban but keeps things moving as the story progresses through over 50 years.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
