Amores Perros

Movie / Show Details

Amazon.com

Amores Perros roughly translates to “Love’s a bitch,” and it’s an apt summation of this remarkable film’s exploration of passion, loss, and the fragility of our lives. In telling three stories connected by one traumatic incident, Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu uses an intricate screenplay by novelist Guillermo Arriaga to make three movies in close orbit, expressing the notion that we are defined by what we lose–from our loves to our family, our innocence, or even our lives. These interwoven tales–about a young man in love with his brother’s pregnant wife, a perfume spokeswoman and her married lover, and a scruffy vagrant who sidelines as a paid killer–are united by a devastating car crash that provides the film’s narrative nexus, and by the many dogs that the characters own or care for. There is graphic violence, prompting a disclaimer that controversial dog-fight scenes were harmless and carefully supervised, but what emerges from Amores Perros is a uniquely conceptual portrait of people whom we come to know through their relationship with dogs. The film is simultaneously bleak, cynical, insightful, and compassionate, with layers of meaning that are sure to reward multiple viewings. –Jeff Shannon

Product Description

Three stories: Octavio is a young aimless loser who lives in a barrio and has an obsessive crush on his sister-in-law, Susana, who is married to Ramiro, an abusive hoodlum. Meanwhile, Daniel, a succesful editor, has ditched his wife and children to live in a dream apartment with Valeria, a shallow and neurotic supermodel. On the other hand, El Chivo, a bitter ex con turned hitman, haunts the life of a pretty young girl with whom he has a secret relationship and gets a commission to kill a wealthy and philandering businessman. These lives and the fates of two dogs get inextricably entangled in the heart of ever-changing, ever violent Mexico City.