by zEke
amores perros meant a well deserved worldwide attention to the Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu. Attention that translated into a nomination as best foreign language film in 2001 Academy Awards for Mexico, whatever that means, a lot for some, nothing for other. Chinese crouching tiger hidden dragon (2000) got that Oscar, though, and three more. Truth is that he did not only put his name on the map, but the director born in Mexico City defined the way he understands the seventh art according to the similarities between this and his other two feature movies 21 grams (2003) and babel (2006). Next one in 2009?
As in 2005 there were 19.2 million inhabitants in Mexico City including the metropolitan area. It might sound odd that one of them decided to shoot movies in where the characters occasionally interact, consciously or unconsciously, without knowing the impact of those interactions on each other. Mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz said the flap of a butterfly can set off a tornado, the butterfly effect. Alejandro González Iñárritu believes this phrase from chaos theory and uses it to look through his camera.
The movie is actually three.
First segment tells the story of Octavio (Gael García) and Susana (Vanessa Bauche). He is in love with her and she is married to his abusive brother. Fed up with his brother abuses he decides to get away with her using the money he raises through clandestine dog fights.
Second segment tells the story of Daniel (Álvaro Guerrero) and Valeria (Goya Toledo). He is married with children and she is his lover. Already separated from his wife he starts a new love adventure with Valeria and her dog. The adventure twists when she is in a car accident that condemned her to a wheelchair.
Third segment tells the story of El Chivo (Emilio Echevarría) and Maru (Lourdes Echevarría). He is a poor devil that survives in Mexico City taking care of street dogs and killing people for a living. Tired of getting away from himself he decided to do something for his daughter, who thinks he has been dead forever.
That is amores perros. The commendable work of director Alejandro González Inárritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga was to be able to link these three stories so that they feed each other, without getting an indigestion, on behalf of a dynamic social photography that describes the bittersweet redemption of its characters. There is always a but. When one has been already taken in by Octavio, Gael García is not just a beautiful face, and Susana, after almost an hour, Daniel y Valeria take the lead and the pace falls considerably down. Their segment, in spite of an excellent Goya Toledo and interesting twists, might be the weakest when considering the movie as a whole. This does not help a film that is already too long, over two hours, which is not that usual lately. Nevertheless, El Chivo, accurately portrayed by Emilio Echeverría, and his laconic existence is able to partially save the movie in the end.
In summary, a remarkable movie that tries to talk straightforward about love, betrayal and death, and that makes us aware of the famous mathematical metaphor of the butterfly and the tornado. The world is big my friend, and we are a lot of people in it.
For the deadhours of puppy lovers, hand workers and slow thinkers.
deadrate: γood
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La naturaleza humana a veces es… indigna.