Amores Perros

AMORES PERROS

(In Spanish, with English subtitles)

Rating: A

We're told at the beginning that "amores perros" is a way of saying "Love's a bitch." This is fortunate, because my rudimentary high school Spanish would have yielded a more benign interpretation involving dog owners' love for their pets. The film actually plays it both ways, interweaving three stories which all feature dogs but which have human relationships at their cores. The stories, fundamentally separate, all come together during a horrific car crash in the middle of the film.

The first vignette involves the world of dog fighting. Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and his older brother Ramiro live with their mother in the slums of Mexico City. Ramiro has a Rottweiler which he pays little attention to, so it more or less has become Octavio's. Ramiro also has a wife, Susana, whom he pays little attention to, with one child and another on the way. True to this film's fondness for using dog/owner relationships as metaphors for human/human relationships, Octavio has secret desires to usurp his brother's wife in the same manner he acquired the dog. One day, when a neighborhood tough sicks his champion pitbull on the dog for sport, the Rottweiler turns the tables and breaks the pitbull's neck. Not only does this begin a feud between the hood and Octavio, but it also begins the Rottweiler's career in the fighting pit. What follows is a compelling tale as Octavio attempts to use the dog to win enough money to run away with Susana, while disaster lurks around every corner. If nothing else, you'll be left wondering whether Octavio or Susana is the stupider person.

The second story is the weakest, partially because it works on the metaphorical level a lot better than on the literal. A young fashion model (Goya Toledo), seriously injured in the Car Crash, has to have her leg amputated. As she struggles with the fact her days of glamour are over forever, she also flounders in a relationship with a man who abandoned his wife and children to be with her. Then her beloved terrier disappears beneath the floorboards of the apartment the two have recently moved into. If you're feeling undeservedly happy and need a good dose of depression, this story's for you.

The final tale is the best of the three, and the major reason for this film's high recommendation. Emilio Echevarria plays a sixtyish former leader of a guerilla freedom fighter group, who now lives on the street with three stray dogs he adopted. His old guerilla ways have led to his estrangement from his daughter, and an occasional sideline as a paid assassin. The Car Crash enters his life while he is on one such assignment, with results which lead to some interesting plot twists. Not only is the script an expertly crafted story, but it also makes us consider the way our view of the world changes as we become older and increasingly aware of our own mortality.

The lone criticism I have of director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's film is his insistence on using a handheld camera throughout. I'm sure he thinks it gives the movie a down-to-earth grittiness and enhances its realism. From my perspective, all the constant camera movement does is remind us there's a guy there holding a camera. Go see it anyway.