Amores Perros (2000)

Directed by: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal

****

Its very clear to me that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has no sense of humor whatsoever. His three films, afterall, are Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel. Watch these three films back to back and try then not to kill yourself... go! Amores Perros, like 21 Grams and Babel, chronicles intersecting storylines but it does it better, in a slightly less depressing (eh, maybe) and much more entertaining style. 21 Grams and Babel, I'd consider good films, Amores Perros, I'd call a great one.

Inarritu uses dramatic irony to its fullest. The intersecting stories allows him to drag out scenes all while his audience is fully aware of what's going to happen next, yet suspense persists. This is something I've of course attempted myself and the success of my attempt remains to be seen. The success of it in Amores Perros is really all that's necessary to tie together what are otherwise seperate stories. The knot that ties these stories together is a car accident, one on which we open after a car chase. Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) runs a red light and violently smashes into another car. This is the climax of his story but its only the beginning of Valerie's story and its just an event in the story of Chivo.

What I like so much about these stories is exactly what I like about one of my favorite films of all time, Magnolia. The stories are related but only loosely. They are their own stories and don't rely on the other from a filmmaking standpoint to survive. Yes, what unfolds in one story, in turn creates another but they are independent. I've always been a fan of this kind of structure, the kind of structure that put Crash into my top 25 of the year (ahead of Amores Perros perhaps only because I'd seen it more recently).

There is a potential flaw in a movie like this and that flaw is only highlighted if the movie is done well. The opening chapter of the film is the story of Octavio and Susanna. In short, Susanna is Octavio's sister in law (and object of affection). Octavio supports Susanna and her child with money he makes in a dogfighting ring (more on this later) because he husband, his brother is a piece of crap, to be blunt. The story is extremely compelling and the filmmaking is gritty and fast. The opening forty-five minutes of this film fly by and the characters become primary and I was fully invested. From there, we move onto the victim of the car crash, Valerie and her relationship with Daniel and their major conflict... finding her dog underneath the floorboards of her apartment.

Valerie's struggle is right up Inarritu's alley as its depressing but real. Her life changes drastically as a result of an accident over which she had no control and we're exposed to this slowly and painfully. Its great filmmaking, its not great entertainment, especially when its in comparison to the previous story. This is the danger in abandoning a story that is working. The inevitable comparison, even more inevitable than comparing similar films... its all within the same one. Lastly, is Chivo's story, the most complicated and least explained... and slowest. Again, great filmmaking makes up for the fact that the movie has slowed to a crawl. I don't expect or want a lot of exposition in a movie but the lack of such surrounding as complex a character as Chivo did lead to some frustration.

Amores perros translates to love is a bitch. There is an underlying theme throughout the entire movie that suggests just this. Everyone has complicated and internally painful relationships that they are dealing with and in that sense, love is a bitch. However, I can't help but assume that the focus on every character's dogs didn't influence the bitch portion of the title. Octavio fights his dog for money, not because he's as horrible a person as he'd need to be to do so but because his dog is good and keeps winning. Valerie seems to care more about her dog more than her man and Chivo just has a lot of dogs. The purpose of these dogs really is to push the story forward and nothing else, and as simple as that seems, its actually very effective. So often, we're exposed to bad relationships, violence or sex to create stories and conflicts. This just provides a unique look.

As for the dogfighting. I'll admit I've wondered why it hasn't shown up in more films and having now revisted this one, I can understand. Everything you hear about the brutality of the "sport" is true. Inarritu doesn't show very much of the fights... an initial attack followed only by emotions of the onlookers. The little that we do see, really does exemplify that brutality. Inarritu effectively shows us a world that really is sickening, just as he's effective in using that world as the starting point for all his intersecting stories.

I'd like to see Inarritu move on from this structure of storytelling as I marvel at his style of filmmaking. Each story he tells could have stood as a feature of its own and part of me, throughout, almost wishes they were and I had more to learn about all of these characters. The background is there, we see the present and speculate about their future... I wish I could have seen it all.