Review of Amores Perros (2000) by Andy M — 25 Mar 2012
Talk about a movie with equal parts bark and bite. Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu's debut feature Amores Perros is a little bit of Go and a little bit of Pulp Fiction, mixed with genuine moral consequences concerning the characters' actions. Inarittu's movie has literal bite, a meditation on our relationship, not only with violence, but with the very animals we refer to as 'man's best friend.' It's a tour de force of a debut feature.
Inarittu, working from a stinging, take-no-prisoners script from novelist Guillermo Arriaga, Amores Perros is a movie in which violence meets coincidence. The narrative goes back and forth through time, but always re-telling similar incidents from different views.
It all starts with a whiplash of an opening scene: that of a car chase through the streets of Mexico City that erupts into a horrific accident. It's that accident that brings all the disparate characters together. First we get 'Octavio and Susana', in which we meet star Gael Garcia Bernal, who treats his violent with the utmost kindness. He's also in love with his sister-in-law Susana, and goes into the dog-fighting business to help her escape his abusive brother.
Then there's Daniel and Valeria. Daniel is a successful magazine publisher who has taken up with a Spanish supermodel, Valeria. After she's severely injured in an accident she's confined to a wheelchair. When their beloved dog goes missing, tension between the two mounts.
Finally there's 'El Chivo and Maru' in which famed Mexican actor Emilio Echevarria plays a disillusioned political activist more in love with his pack of dogs than his neighbors who gets more than he bargained for when he takes in a stray.
No fair telling how the many characters meet up exactly. That's one of the movie's powers, others being its explosively kinetic pace. Inarittu and Arriaga would employ similar storytelling techniques in their follow-up films, 21 Grams and Babel, but they never created something as freshly fierce as Amores Perros.
This review of Amores Perros (2000) was written by Andy M on 25 Mar 2012.
Amores Perros has generally received very positive reviews.
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