Looking at the lives of three people, Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal), Valeria (Goya Toledo) and El Chivo (Emilio Echevarría), who are all connected by a car crash. Over the course of the film, we witness how the crash affects their lives whether it's for better or for worse. Octavio tries to win over his brother's wife (Vanessa Bauche), Valeria has to cope with her life after the crash and El Chivo wants to reconcile with his daughter.
I love the structure this film goes for. It relies on a three act structure that most films use however instead of one huge story, it's actually three combined into one film with only the car crash as the link between them. Other than that, there is nothing that connects the stories together which gives the film a unique feel similar to Pulp Fiction...but Mexican. This means the film never drags and leaves with a bittersweet feeling after it ends (the last story ends...the other two are just tragic).
Normally I talk about the acting but I want to focus more on the characters and, while it's normally acting that helps identify the characters, there are some especially good ones. All I'm talking about is how much I enjoyed El Chivo and his story (easily the best of the three) as I didn't really care about the other characters. The story arcs that characters go though (yes, even the dog) show some excellent writing and use of narrative structures.
Amores Perros is a god film to start with if you want to look at Mexican cinema. The narrative structure shows that it does get old or drag, the story is well put together, the characters become well developed and given attention and it also doesn't make me feel bad like the other two Mexican films do...which means we'll get onto those next. Amores Perros is in IMDb's top 250 films for a reason.
Verdict:
9/10
A well written film with developed characters and a excellent narrative structure.
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