Foreign Movie Review: Amores Perros

"Amores Perros" (roughly translated "Love's a Bitch") is a movie with three little tales that are connected by a terrible car accident and the common caring and devotion of the main characters to their beloved dogs. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu ("21 Grams," "Babel") it examines love, loss, family, betrayal and sacrifice through differing social strata in Mexico City.

Grocery store clerk, Octavio is in love with his brother's pregnant wife, Susana. The brother, Ramiro, is a brute to both. Octavio convinces Susana to run away with him but as honest money is difficult to come by in poverty-stricken Mexico City, he and his Rottweiler enter the world of dogfighting. When Ramiro finds out about his little brother's activities, he demands a cut. In a true snowball effect, all of Octavio's plans begin to unravel.

Then there are Daniel and Valeria. Valeria is a popular perfume spokesmodel at the height of her career, and Daniel is a married publisher. He sets up his mistress in a condo overlooking one of her billboard ads. After moving in together, Valeria is seriously injured in a car accident. When her dog falls through a hole in the couple's condo, unable to be found, Valeria listens to constant whining and scratching coming from beneath the floor. Her resulting mental and physical deterioration parallels the disintegration of Daniel and Valeria's relationship.

And last, there is El Chivo, a scruffy loner, and his mangy dogs. Living with regret for deserting his wife and daughter to become a guerilla-fighter during The Cause, he spies on his adult child. Meanwhile he supports himself and his pack working as a part-time hitman. When one brother hires him to kill the other brother, it's too much, even for him.

The dogs themselves are important characters to the movie. They serve as a statement on how individuals treat pets with more love and respect than their fellow human beings, even family. The characters and their lives are far from romanticized, but Gael García Bernal as Octavio and Emilio Echevarría as El Chivo give sympathetic qualities to two unsympathetic lives. Reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino's non-linear, episodic "Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs" style, the stories unfold in seedy, gritty, cynical, yet unexpected compassionate details. Unlike Tarantino's style of snappy dialogue and bright red movie blood, the three stories in "Amores Perros" are raw, leaving the audience with a realistic look at individuals and the choices they make.

This movie offers layers of realities, realizations and subtle moralities. Well written, well acted, and expertly directed, "Amores Perros" is a foreign film worth watching.