THE MOVIE

Is love a bitch? According to director Alejandro Conzales Inarritu it is. Amores Perros may not be a film that is on everyone’s mind, and indeed many may not have even heard about it, yet it is one of the best films I have seen this year and well worth watching. I must admit the first time I saw this film’s trailer I became very interested. The film had a raw energy about it that was both intriguing and confrontational. When I finally sat down to actually watch the film, what I had seen in the trailer was only the beginning and the tremendous story that unfolded before my eyes was not only frighteningly real but very moving.

Amores Perros opens with one of the best car chases I have ever seen. The frantic, documentary style that the car chase is handled with gives you a taste of what is to come whilst also introducing you, very effectively, to the confusing and out of control world of the central characters. The car chase ends in a terrible accident, which is the catalyst for the rest of the stories in the film.

Similar to Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (to which the film has been unfairly compared), Amores Perros contains three stories which although not directly related to each other interweave and mesh as if they were. The car crash is the singular event experienced by all the parties and it has a profound impact on each of their lives.

Octavio and Susana
The first story focuses on the young and optimistic Octavio (the brilliant and captivating Gael Garcia Bernal) who lives in the Mexican slums. Octavio never lets this get him down, however, and he can see the brighter side of life. Something his older brother cannot. Octavio is secretly in love with his brother’s wife, Susana, a confused a scared girl who is very unhappy in the abusive relationship she shares with Octavio’s brother. Octavio knows she deserves better and makes it his goal to provide a better future for her and his nephew.

Octavio gets his opportunity to do this when his dog, Cofi, kills a currently undefeated fighting dog. Octavio and his best friend decide to fight Cofi in order to make enough money for Octavio and Susana to run away. However, the unbeatable Cofi soon begins to anger the other dog fighters, who want the dog, and its upstart young owner, out of the game.

Daniel and Valeria
The second story is about Daniel. A married father of two who is unhappy with his current situation. Daniel has feelings for the beautiful supermodel, Valeria, who has just been made the ‘face’ of a new perfume. With Valeria Daniel feels better about himself and the world. He finally has a beautiful ‘trophy’ on his arm and a nice new apartment for them to share. However, his life is turned upside down when Valeria is involved in the car accident, badly damaging her leg.

Things become worse when Valeria’s beloved dog Ritchie runs through a hole in the apartment floor and won’t return. With her dog gone and her brand new ad campaign finished the wheelchair bound Valeria, slowly begins to unravel, as Daniel desperately tries to hold his ‘ideal’ world together.

El Chivo and Maru
The final story is about El Chivo, an intellectual and former guerilla, who has been banished from his family after being sentenced to jail. Chivo, who is now a vagrant living with a pack of stray dogs, longs to be reconnected with his daughter, who believes him to be dead. However, despite wishing to turn his life around and make a new start El Chivo works as a hitman, carrying out other people’s dirty work.

Amores Perros is easily one of the best films of the year. A fact film festivals the world over have agreed with. The film has won the best film awards at the following festivals: Cannes Critic’s Week, Flanders International, Chicago, AFI Festival Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Tokyo and Moscow. As well as picking up several best director/actor awards and an Academy Award nomination for best foreign film. In fact just a few minutes into the film it is easy to see why it has received the praise it has. The film’s sheer energy is breathtaking. Director Inarritu exudes a masterly control of story and style, blending the two seamlessly to create a near perfect film that despite running for more than two and a half hours relatively flies by.

This is an ensemble piece and there isn’t a poor performance amongst them. The first story is certainly stolen by the charismatic Bernal. His performance throughout the film covers the gamut of emotion from sheer joy and elation to despair, desperation and complete emotional destruction. He handles everything that is called of him with professionalism and skill and will certainly be a talent to keep your eyes on. He is ably supported by Vanessa Bauche whose naive yet optimistic Susana is very real. Her plight seems hopeless yet she never gives up hope. Utterly believable. Emilio Echevarria delivers a wonderfully measured and thoughtful performance as the hopeful El Chivo. His eyes and actions say more than his words and you can see the transformation he makes during the film. His realism contributes greatly to the story and is wonderful to watch. The rest of the performances: Goya Toldeo as Valeria, Alvaro Guerrero as Daniel and Marco Perez as Octavio’s brother Ramiro are all brilliant.

This film is in your face from start to finish. Making you think and challenging the way you respond to the events you witness. It is this kinetic energy that moves the story forward and keeps you firmly planted in your seat from start to finish. The film is certainly very stylized and not in an annoying “look at all the tricks I learnt at film school” way. Although the camera basically never stops and visual flair is certainly present it never gets in the way of the story. Style over substance is an all too common occurrence of late, so it is refreshing to see a very stylized film that doesn’t fall into this trap.

One thing I will say about this film is that it is very confronting. Raw emotion plays a big part in the story and some people may have difficulty with this. However, it is with the often very graphic dog fighting scenes that I believe that most people could have a problem. After watching these scenes several times I still have no idea how they did them. These dogs appear to be really fighting. In fact the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in England complained about several of the scenes to the British Board of Film Classification. Certainly some people may be appalled with dead, bloody, dogs appearing consistently. However, these scenes are necessary to the film and not only help to create the film’s atmosphere and emotion but offer a parallel to the world the characters inhabit.

The film is exceptionally well put together. Music is used very well used to create a frantic feeling and confuse the viewer. The direction is wonderful and the editing is superb. Inarritu is a talent to watch out for.

What else can I say about Amores Perros aside from see it. It is an exceptional film experience.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

The film is presented in 16x9 enhanced widescreen and looks very impressive. The film itself has been treated to give it a gritty nature and although that doesn’t show up too adversely on the screen (i.e there isn’t much grain etc) it does change the color palate. The image is sharp and contains good definition. The details of the city and the sets come across well. It is the little details you can see in the background, like the belongings on a dresser, for example, that make this film what it is, adding realism.

Colors are good and although they contain a lot of greys and blues still look realistic enough. The colors are a tad blown out (deliberately) yet this isn’t annoying and I quite enjoyed it. Blacks are strong, deep and fairly common and the shadow detail is acceptable.

All up there isn’t much wrong with this video. It looks great, doesn’t contain any major flaws and is easy to watch.

Audio:

The disc features a Dolby Digital 5.1 track in Spanish with yellow English subtitles, that turn on automatically and are ‘thankfully’ contained to the ‘black bars’ most of the time. This makes them easy to read and follow. The track is easy to hear and very strong. Dialogue is always audible and matches up nicely to on screen action. Sound effects don’t have to compete with the voices and are given their own space, allowing the realism factor I’ve mentioned above to come through.

Although a 5.1 track there isn’t a great deal of use made of the surround channels. Still when they are called upon they do the job well and I had no qualms about them. Most of the film takes place across the front soundstage and the directionality is very good. The music, which is comprised, mostly, of songs, never gets too overpowering. A fact I love.

There aren’t any major problems with the audio track either, it is good.

THE EXTRAS

We have been blessed with a fair assortment of extras, although there isn’t a commentary track, which I would have loved to hear.

Deleted Scenes
First up are a group of twelve deleted scenes, which can be viewed with Spanish commentary from the director and writer. These range from those cut for obvious reasons to ones that could, and probably should, have been left in the finished film. The commentary is insightful and explains thoroughly why the decision was made to cut these scenes and what they mean to the overall story.

Behind the Scenes
Running for about seven and a half minutes this short feature looks primarily at the actors and directors reactions to their characters. This makes for interesting viewing as this is such a character driven film. Presented in Spanish with yellow subtitles.

Making Of
This runs for about 18 minutes yet contains a fair bit of the footage form the other featurette. This time it is more focused on the way the story was constructed and the feelings towards each of the characters. Interesting and although they don’t look at how the dog fights were filmed they do take an indepth look at the car crash. Again in Spanish with yellow subtitles.

Press Kit
An EPK for the film looking at its soundtrack, cast & crew and the awards it has won.

Music Videos
Three music videos are contained here taken form the film’s soundtrack. Some of them are directed by Inarritu.

Trailer
An excellent example of how a trailer should be made. Fast, exciting and without giving away too much of the story. Very cool.

All up some decent extras that should delight fans of the film.

SUMMARY

This is a wonderful and very raw film that takes you on a journey. It is the kind of film that you walk out of differently. Contemplative and thought provoking it is excellently made and deserves all the praise it has received. Highly recommended, it is brilliant, one of the DVDs of the year.