SUMMARY:

The Reyes brothers, Juan, Oscar, Franco and Libya had to run away from their home to the city, after their parents had been murdered. In the city, they own a bakery, with which they make a humble but honest living; although one of the brothers, Oscar, is quite ambitious and wishes to lead a much better life. The little sister, Libya, is in love with a rich landowner, a man pretty much older than her, Bernardo Elizondo, who loves her back. When her brothers find out, they oppose their relationship, but Bernardo Elizondo tries to convince them that he has honest intentions, and encouraged by Oscar, who sees in Bernardo the door for a comfortable life, they accept the relationship. What the Reyes brothers do not know is that Bernardo is married to Gabriela and has three daughters.

Bernardo owns a ranch, in which he lives with his wife and daughters, Sara, Norma and Jimena, already grown-up girls; Norma’s husband, Fernando Escandón and his wife’s father, Mr. Martin Acevedo, a retired soldier who is paralytic. Norma and Fernando’s marriage was fixed by Mrs. Gabriela to hide that Norma had been a rape victim, and the marriage is only a facade and it hasn’t been consummated, owing to the girl’s trauma.

Although Bernardo is in love with Libya, he knows he cannot marry her, since Mrs. Gabriela, a quite despotic and very old-fashioned woman, would never give him the divorce. Anyway, he is decided to break up with everything to live his love story; but unfortunately, he has a horse accident and dies. Some days later, Libya Reyes discovers she’s pregnant so she decides to look for Bernado. When she arrives to the Elizondo’s, apart from finding out that Bernardo died, she is also mistreated and despised by Mrs. Gabriela. Libya leaves the place in despair and commits suicide.

When the Reyes brothers find out what happened, they swear to avenge their sister and go to the Elizondo’s, but as they do not find Mrs. Gabriela they decide to stay in the ranch, pretending to be some bricklayers Mrs. Gabriela hired to build a separate house for Norma and Fernando. After meeting the Elizondo sisters, Oscar tries to convince his brothers to change their revenge plans and seduce one of the Elizondo sisters to give them a dose of their own medicine, though what he really intends is to get his hands on the Elizondo’s money to improve his situation. Juan pretends to humor him and Franco let himself be carried away because he is in love, he has a crush on a singer from the Alcalá bar, Rosario Montes. But everything changes when Juan and Norma see each other for the first time - they feel instantly attracted for the other. This attraction makes Juan completely forget about their revenge plans, but the couple will find thousands of obstacles in their way, which they will have to overcome.

OUR COMMENTS:

This telenovela, like all the Telemundo’s telenovelas, was excellently realized, but the script, like those from the other Telemundo’s telenovelas seen up to now, is weak. Its main attraction, apart from the obvious attraction of the beauty of the main actors, is the combination of dramatic elements, though in some cases too forced, and comic elements, like the brothers’ way of solving every conflict with blows.

The story has a good start, and the instant attraction scenes of Juan and Norma break a little with the insipidness cliché which soaks this genre quite often. Juan and Norma feel attracted for each other without uttering a single word, so it’s difficult that they convince the audience that their attraction is something more than pure sex, and that realism is thanked for. Oscar and Jimena got the ‘comic couple’ part, and honestly, they are. Oscar, who has the potential to become an unpleasant character, is saved by the fact that he is loyal and loves his brothers, and by the funny Alfonso Baptista and the nerve he has to do things, though we’re not sure who’s the one that has that nerve – Oscar, the character or Alfonso, the actor. The love between the Reyes brothers is much greater than the love between the Elizondo sisters – this is another original aspect of the telenovela. The Reyes brothers, very strong machos, love each other, and they show it - a fact that drives them away from the impassive traditional masculine role.

Although it has a good start, little by little the plot and the situations become repetitive and monotonous. It seems that the story line from the original telenovela “Las Aguas Mansas”, which “Pasión De Gavilanes” is based upon, was much more tragic, since the brothers’ purpose of revenge was real, and discovering their purpose means the end of one of the Elizondo sister’s life - a fact that gives the public a reason to hate them. Besides, the character of Ruth, in the original telenovela, is the sister and not the cousin of the Reyes; something which was changed, we suppose, because Telemundo or its scriptwriters consider unacceptable that Ruth, though a ‘good’ character, would be the Reyes’ sister, since she was born out of an affair her mother Eva had with a married man, i.e. the Reyes’ father. In “Pasión De Gavilanes” the revenge is so ‘decaffeinated’ that it is not comprehensible that such a simple thing separates Norma from Juan and Jimena from Oscar for so many months. Besides, when the conflict is solved and the couples get together again, which is the logic in the fact that, after having slept with Juan without uttering a word first, Norma decides she can’t live with him without getting married? And Jimena, which is the reason she has not to live with her husband, after having fought the world for him and elope with him?

At the beginning, the telenovela introduces various dramatic elements which are wasted then, like Norma’s rape, which seems to have the only purpose of justifying that Norma doesn’t sleep with her husband, and that’s it. After the beginning, one would expect that Juan and Norma talk to each other, but they don’t. Does Juan know that Norma was raped? The only one time in which they talk to each other, after their wedding, she’s telling him some trivialities, which any normal person would have talked about in their first date. What a waste of the chemistry between these two actors!

The character of Mrs. Gabriela is not only unbearable but also sickening and pathological; it’s odd her daughters tolerate the treatment they receive from her, because she not only submits them to physical punishment but also to psychological punishment, even by not believing them when they accuse Fernando Escandón of trying to rape them. The frivolity with which the rape attempts are treated is terrifying, and the protagonism of this lady, determined that her daughters shall not have a private life, is terribly boring.

The poor Fernando Escandón drew the short straw - at the beginning his role is that of a good for nothing man, a gentleman of good family with bad customs, but as if by magic he turns into a perverse and perverted man, with a ridiculous ending. The opposite occurs to the poor Armando - he starts being bad to end up being just a fool. The plot involving Rosario, Armando and his bar, which also starts well, repeats itself till it makes you sick, and if it wasn’t for Zharick León’s beauty, which is a pleasure to see, Zharick’s scenes are worth of being forwarded with the remote control.

The very opposite occurs to the following characters: Raquelita, whose ending is one of the bests; Leandro, a find, since he’s funny, affectionate, a faithful friend and also a good professional with guts; Melissa, though her story with the doctor is really boring; Pepita Roderos, who’s a healthy, noble and honest character; and Benito.

In the end, the telenovela feels the consequences of the fact that the actors were already involved in other simultaneous projects, like the shooting of the telenovela from TVEAQ; since the main characters disappear in key scenes and Juan and Norma barely have scenes together (what a fad from the production companies to put action scenes in telenovelas while what telenovela lovers like are the love scenes).

Mrs. Gabriela scenes with Fernando Escandón and Dinora are really long and never ending, the dialogs are weak and as they have nothing to say they talk at the top of their voice.

After a crazy end, everything ends with a dance (and we have to recognize they dance tremendously well), in a very long and a bit embarrassing scene of Franco and Sarita’s wedding, with the true tears of Justina included. Everybody was very well-dressed.

THE BEST:

How good looking everyone is; the attraction between Juan and Norma, which can be felt; Oscar’s comic scenes; the love between the Reyes brothers; the party scenes with everybody dancing excitedly; the fight scenes; the combination of all these elements and Juan David, a cute boy with a girly face.

THE WORST:

The script’s nonsense, the repetition of some situations, the waste of dramatic elements and the loss of the dramatic tension way before the end.