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Amores Perros (2000): 7/10

Poster (c) Lions Gate Films

Only in America would a gritty movie with tons of violence, sex, and language be allowed in but the foreign title must be used because the translated title is “Love’s a Bitch”. While grittier films have come out of America, Mexico’s Amores Perros still is something that I have never seen before. Although it has been called the Mexican Pulp Fiction, I fail to see the connection except that both deal with lowlifes and jump around with time. Other than that, there are no real similarities.

Like Pulp Fiction, though, it’s divided up into segments. The first deals with Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) who is madly in love with his sister-in-law Susana (Vanessa Bauche) so he uses their dog Cofi to fight for money to run away with. Second is Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero) whose marriage to model Valeria (Goya Toledo) is jeopardized when their dog Richie falls underneath their apartment. Last is former guerillia El Chivo (Emilio Echevarria) who is assigned to murder someone, and also finds a wounded dog to take care of.

All three stories are brought together by a car crash, each in a separate way. And all three stories show how important dogs are to people. In all of them, the owner of the dog is more concerned about the canine than other people. It could be showing the alienation of culture, but it could just be showing us three stories of people down on their luck in Mexico City.

I am a big animal lover, and it was rather painful to watch so many dogfights and dogs in peril, but at least barely any of the fighting was shown. It seems at times like Amores Perros goes for shock value, with the sudden fights and the gritty feel and the strong animal gore, to make us choose how we feel. Also, the music sways us, although it’s quite good. In the case of movies like this, sometimes the music can hurt it, but not here.

Amores Perros is one of those movies that have you feeling all mixed up inside, like you don’t know how to feel, but that feeling goes away soon after the movie is done. You think it will leave a lasting impression on you, but it doesn’t. I wish I could write more on this movie, but it’s one of those movies that’s hard to really talk about. See it if you’d like to see something different, and maybe you’ll have another impression of it than what I had.

Rated R for violence/gore, language and sexuality.

Review Date: January 1, 2004