A dense, overtly sophisticated, but never really wise, script by Mr. Arriaga gets the famed "Inarritu treatment" – otherwise known as "fanciful free fall in the arms of obsessive despair and educated repulsion". The "problem" with Amores Perros (also with 21 Grams and Babel) is you just can't ignore it. Or, to put it better, you'd feel some kind of terminal guilt (appropriately
) if you did. The three intertwining stories revolve ambitiously and high-poweredly around the theme of fatalism, on "love's a bitch" (more or less the title), on "brother against brother" religious motifs, on Kieslowski, Poe, a bit of Mexican-period Bunuel, and on a to-the-point requiem on Viva La Revolucion. In short however, this is a salute to the idea of "God laughing when people make plans". (To be honest, God laughs when people make movies about God). In any case, the only one laughing in Inarritu's humorless universe could be God, though I don't really see why He'd be so pleased in seeing his creatures miserable as hell (
). Obviously this is a vengeful divine presence overlooking the production of Amores Perros, a production stately (while recalling Mr. Babenko's 1981 Pixote) and, occasionally, inspiringly unpleasant. Undoubtedly a masterpiece for those who get their ideological kicks in non-American speaking filmmaking, an intriguing torture for the rest.
Review of Amores Perros
