<< Back 5/29/02 Flicks: Amores Perros By Gary Carden Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch) Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Time: 153 minutes — 2001 Rating: R I watched this video with an anxiety that gradually gave way to admiration and total absorption. I guess the anxiety is understandable since much of the action takes place in the menacing underbelly of Mexico City. Trash-littered streets, winos, traffic, a soundtrack that sounds like the inside of an industrial boiler ... and dogs. Some of this film’s most prominent actors are canines — scavengers, killers and pampered show dogs. At first, I assumed that I was in for a depressing journey through a bleak slum filled with grimy, doomed lives and futile struggle. Somewhere around the mid-point, I concluded that “Amores Perros” is all of those things, but the trip was exhilarating. In short, I loved every minute (all 153 of them). At the heart of Inarritu’s complex story is a car wreck — an abrupt, annihilating crash in a busy intersection that stuns the viewer. The accident act as a catalyst in the lives of four people and an unforgettable dog named Cofi. There is Valeria (Goya Toledo) and her pampered pooch, Richie, Valeria is a slender fashion model who has just set up housekeeping with Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero), who has just left his wife in order to devote his full attention to Valeria. Down the street in a slum tenement, young Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) is hopelessly in love with his brother’s wife and is raising the money to escape with her by entering Cofi in a series of to-the-death dog fights (a popular diversion in Mexico). Then, there is El Chivo (Emilio Echevarria), a former terrorist (and continuing assassin) who spends each day prowling the streets of Mexico City with a herd of scavenger dogs. El Chivo likes to hone his talents and occasionally functions as a hit man. In the city’s jungle of political intrigue, he is much sought after. In the course of their normal lives, this cast of characters would never cross paths. What would a fashion model, a ghetto-dwelling, love-sick boy who owns a killer dog and a hit man have in common? Yet, three stories converge, colliding in a busy intersection. Octavio and his friend George (who has a wonderful two-toned hair do) are racing through a labyrinth of streets with the gun-shot Cofi, hotly pursued by friends of the man that Octavio has just stabbed (the man who shot Cofi); Valeria and her coifed doggie, Richie or doing a bit of grocery shopping prior to their first night in the love nest; El Chivo is standing at the fatal intersection with his platoon of strays when Valeria’s car and Octavio’s collide. The rest of “Amores Perros” has to do with consequences. Valeria is permanently crippled, her career over and her love nest has turned into a sinister trap where she is plagued by anoynmous phone calls, rats scuttle beneath the floor and pampered Richie has disappeared. Daniel is beginning to make timid calls home to his wife. Octavio has lost his dog, his money and his brother’s wife, and even though his brother is dead (killed in a bank robbery), the widow continues to rebuff him. El Chivo, who saves Cofi, carrying him away from the scene of the wreck, is beginning to think about resurrecting his lost life and a relationship with a daughter who thinks he is dead. In fact, some of the film’s most moving scenes are connected with this enigmatic character. It seems fitting that he and Cofi should end up together — they have much in common. Every character in this film is defined by their relationship with a dog. Guillermo Arriaga’s screenplay skillfully blends the two by stressing the similarity of their desires and instincts. Obviously, Arriaga feels that to a great extent, dogs and humans share the same fate — both at the mercy of biological and social forces beyond their control. All of the characters in “Amores Perros” are vivid and appealing. I even watched this film twice. Finally, the video has a wonderful trailer. After the conclusion of the film, the cassette version — just like current DVD formats — has an additional segment about how the film was made. The viewer learns that none of the dogs were injured or mistreated, and even the bloodiest sequences were done with cinematic effects and fakery. And the dogs are an interesting bunch of critters, too. The cast tells anecdotes about making the film and, just like “Amores Perros,” the dogs steal the show. Rent this one. You’ll never forget it. I suspect that this is one of those rare cinematic accomplishments — a masterpiece.