Amores Perros was one of the catalysts for a new wave of Latin films that came from regions such as Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, creating low cost films with the polish of Hollywood, but without the pretentious scripting.
Known in English as Love’s A Bitch, in this film, that title is certainly true. Covering themes such as adultery, betrayal, death and the ironies of love itself. The film begins with a sequence which at first looks like a Reservoir Dogs parody; a dog is in the back seat bleeding to death, with the driver trying to escape from the lunatic chasers firing bullets at them, and his funky haired friend crying about the dog dying and trying to save him. It’s quite a frantic and speedy opening, as the culmination of all that driving is a crash which interconnects the lives of three people.
Also linked to this is a theme of dogs, both as characters to help move the story along, but also perhaps a metaphorical representation for the individual tales to be told, a reflection of the characteristics of the owners, as well as a personification of love itself; the dog’s are truly loved, and devoted to, unlike their human counterparts or instead betray and cheat.
Moving away from what the dogs represent, the first story is that of Octavio and Susana. Susana is the wife of Octavio’s violent, psychotic brother. The three of them live with Octavio and Ramiro’s mother (Ramiro being psycho brother). Susana is still at school, and is therefore, ta da, a teen pregnancy.
The relationship between Octavio and Susana seems to be a lot more loving than that of Susana and Ramiro, and their mother is suspicious of this. Octavio doesn’t do much, and his brother works in the local supermarket, earning whatever money he can, while on the side holding an interesting career in drugs. Well the obvious happens, with Octavio’s brother/sister-in-law friendship taking the turn of infatuation. He wants her, and he will do anything to have her. Susana is misguided by her commitment to her husband, and her lusting for his younger brother.
Still, the film is ambitious and a very good accomplishment for what it sets out to do from a relatively new director
The parallel story is that of Octavio’s financial scheme of using his dog in dog fights for money. His dog just so happens to have killed the dog of an annoying gang member, after the gang member assumed his own dog would kill Octavio’s. He isn’t happen, and wants reparations from Octavio. Octavio kills every dog the other guy offers to fight with, in the process earning money, and also providing a means and incentive of running off with Susana with the child she has now, and her soon to be new born, which Ramiro is not aware of.
Several elements of the other tales are brought into the mix as well, with no real reference as to who these people are, or how they are even related. This all comes to a head when the opening scene concludes, and the impact of that tragedy ripples through their lives like an earthquake. There is no question however, that the first tale is the most frantic, and evenly paced of the three, providing likable on screen performances, and engaging story of how love is such a fickle desire.
A second tale slows the pace down enormously, some have argued that is pedestrian by contrast to the first story. This is true, but because of the breakneck speed at which the events take place in the first film, the second part, which is an equally tragic tale, provides a different style from the director, as well as a much more tense performance. Away from the antics of making a fast buck, the second film deals with the relationship of a famous model, earning tonnes of money, and a magazine editor who is playing away from his wife. It’s personal opinion as to whether the characters get what they deserve, and whether human relationships really can be formed on the basis of adultery, of deceit and secrets.
What should have been a happy start to a newly formed relationship, turns in to a bitter, and horrific series of events. Most of it is perpetuated by the woman’s need to get her dog back. The dog seems to perpetuate the animosity and distance that grows between the couple. In addition to which, just as the couple suffer, the dog suffers more than enough in its own way reflecting an almost double tragedy of events in the same home. The ending is perhaps bittersweet, considering all the things that could have happened, and the possibilities that were available to either of them, what they end up as in the end, is befitting and no more, nor less than what they deserved.
Initial love between the two is convincing enough. But, it’s when their world is turned upside down, that the tension, hatred and futility of their situation that strikes a serious nerve in both of them. The dog’s circumstance servers as a vehicle for their anger, as each of them start to wonder as to why they’re together, and what went wrong. It’s brilliant, if slow, but I really enjoyed it.
The final part, is the tale of a wino that lives life as an assassin of sorts. Once a normal person, he suddenly decided to take up guerrilla warfare, and now lives his life as a tramp with the vagabond dogs he has taken into his place. Just when you think the director has had his fill of depressive human tragedy, he comes along and whacks another load at you.
This is perhaps my favourite story of the three, provided a much more even pace than the other two, which seem to be either very frantic or slow. Chivo has been dead to his family for many years since he upped and left, and it’s only when his wife’s funeral is announced in the obituaries that the past comes back to haunt him, as he tries to make amends to the only living person he cares about: his daughter, who herself had been brought up by her stepfather, and has never known her real father.
Add to the foray one final kill that has been requested of Chivo, and you almost feel a prediction as to how this will end. It doesn’t, thankfully, end the way I expected it to, providing instead a much better ending than I would have expected. Events from the first two stories have an effect on the path on which this one takes, as Chivo becomes involved or passes by others in the previous stories by coincidence. It’s carefully dealt with, without seeming over emphasising or clumsy.
Octavio doesn’t do much, and his brother works in the local supermarket, earning whatever money he can, while on the side holding an interesting career in drugs
The film is only two hours long, and in this time it is forced to provide three different tales about essentially the same subject. On the one hand, the three are very, very loosely linked, and its only minor chance meetings, or in passing that any connection can really be made. The stales themselves are rather inclusive, and it’s often like watching three completely different films, from the same director, that just happen to have people that are linked by an event. It works well, but the link is so fragile it’s almost non existent. The characters themselves do not really become engaged or involved in each other’s tragedies, adding to that detached feeling for each segment.
Camera work, the photography, the script all vary depending on the part you are watching. It makes more difficult to surmise whether the film is a cohesive success, or a melting pot of ideas which fails to gel together to truly call itself a single entity. For me it veers more towards the former, than the latter, occasionally stepping into the latter, but is forgiven as most of it works really well.
Still, the film is ambitious and a very good accomplishment for what it sets out to do from a relatively new director. It has already won five star reviews across the globe, as well as critical acclaim. I think this could be due to positive discrimination, which I am very much against, but I guess it will provide an avenue to spread this film further than that of art house nerds, and film enthusiasts.
I liked the characters, I liked the dogs, the story, the writing, the dialogue, the tension, the fear, the betrayal, the pace, the start, the conclusion. There is very little that I could pick on that I haven’t enjoyed, except what I’ve already stated. At two hours long, it manages to cram a whole lot in, and that time just disappears as you become absorbed in film which deserves its critical acclaim.
Verdict: Taut, suspenseful, tragic and sad. Not your everyday film about love.