Review of Amores Perros (2000) by Arshi R — 10 Mar 2010

Grade: A-.

Amores Perros (loves a bitch), is a beautiful if tonally inconsistent film. I give the film much praise for the fact that it explores so many situations with so many different moods, and yet stays true to the theme of its title, while fragmenting that meaning at the same time, so that it takes on multiple angles. Often frenetically edited, especially during scenes that warrent it, its also complex, and well thought out. If the stories seem like they are going where you think they're going, the film does a good job at upending those expectations.

Told in three easily identifiable parts, rather neatly separted yet at times overlapping, the film is a study of not just love, but of Mexico City itself, its locations, its norms and values, and its male/female predispositions. Unlike the good Ol' U.S. of A, Michael Vick wouldn't be so severly punished here for his dog fighting excapades.

The film begins by showing us the moment that inextricobly connects the three separate plot strands together. We've seen some similar techniques in films like Innaritu's Babel, as well as films like Short Cuts and Magnolia, though those films have slightly different sensablities. This film has the look and attitude of City of God, and a cynacism about love that is normal in certain Woody Allen films.

Amores Perros doesn't only deal with the seedy underbelly; it also looks at the relationship of a newly married, upper-middle class couple. The man, Daniel(alvero Guerrero), is recently divorced, and the film looks at his transition in to his new marriage with Valeria (goya toledo),as they move in to an apartment together; the film examines the unexpected and life-shattering events which occur during the marriages early stages. Valeria, his new wife, is a model, though I don't want to tell you what happens to her. Valeria adores her dog Richie, and he goes missing under the loose floorboards of the apartment, ; what first-time director Alejandro Innaritu does with this is wonderful and painful, and great cinema.

The Marriage of the Valeria and Daniel is the films second "love story" that's looked at. The first is the one between Octavio & Susana. Susana is married to Octavio's brother, who is an abusive alcoholic with serious psychological issues; all three people live together, and the mood is at best, volatile. This could be called a non-love story as much as it is a love story, but love definately plays a part, and its definately a bitch as well. The story mainly follows Octavio, as his rotweiler Cofi incidenally gets him caught up in the underground world of dog-fighting. This serves as a power trip for Octavio, as well as a means to escape with Susana, the women he loves. This story, as with the others, is based on a lack of morals. you may ask yourself how there can be a lack of morals when these characters have grown up in a world where certain morals and norms dont even exist; thats a good argument, and Innaritu underlines the film with that sentiment.

The third love story involves a man, El Chivo (Emilio Echevarria) who, a long time ago, abandoned his family for reasons he thought he could explain, only to realize in the present that he cant. This is a man who has not only been shunned, but has shunned himself to a large degree. Longing for love and hoping for an invisible reset button, he lives as a faux homeless man, and owns a pack of nice, faithful, and obediant dogs. From these dogs he recieves a kind of unconditional love that he hasn't received from a human in a long, long time. El Chivo is cunning and smart, and was once a teacher, though he has long forgotten how to care about the real world; he also happens to be an assasin for hire.

The side-story between Octavio and his brother is well-aligned with another side-story between two businessman brothers, one of whom has hired El Chivo to assasinate the other. This plot unfolds masterfully, and its no wonder why Innaritu chose this as how he wanted to end his film, because the films ending is one of its most powerful attributes; the way the film sums up its fragmented narrative, and invites us to see the big picture, is great work, espectially considering this is a first time director. The film pushes a sense of hopelessness, yet the ending does a good job at showing us the balance that things can have, even if it is an ugly balance.

This film is part of Innaritu's Death Trilogy, which also includes 21 Grams and Babel. Babel was One of my favorite films of 2006. This, Amores Perros, is one of my 10 favorite films of 2001.