Love Is a B*tch

Every once in a while a movie comes to isolated West Texas that has won an award at the Cannes Film Festival and has been nominated in the Best Foreign Film category. I saw such a movie today. It's a movie made in Mexico entitled "Amoresperros" which literally translated means "Love Is a B*tch". I knew absolutely nothing about the film before I got there but I thought it to be a great directorial debut by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarrito.

I must point out that the movie is not for the faint at heart especially if you love animals. At the beginning there is a disclaimer that states no animals were harmed in the filming of the film but there are some very realistic dog fight scenes that certainly makes the movie
unsuitable for young children.

The movie reminds me of the three film French trilogy, "Blue", "Red" and "White" because there are three totally unrelated stories told here that are ties together literally by an accident. Screenwriter Guillermo Arriga has written an incredible, convoluted set of stories which
constantly keep you guessing.

The first story is "Octavio y Susanna". Octavio seems to be a relatively nice man at first but he covets his brother's wife and "borrows" his brother's dog for fights to earn the money to spirit Susanna away. Octavio is played by Gail Garcia Bernal and Susanna is played by
Vanessa Bauche. Although stealing your brother's wife and dog don't sound like good qualities, Susanna's husband is abusive and cheating on her so we don't feel too sorry for him.

The second story is "Daniel y Valeria" and it concerns a businessman (Alvaro Guerrero) who leaves his wife and family for a beautiful model Valeria played by Goya Toledo. There life is messed up when Valeria gets hurt and, once again, a major part of their tale has to do with a
lost dog.

The last story is "El Chiva y Mura" and features a street person who spends his spare time as an assassin for the police. He appears to have nothing in the world but his trash cart and a pack of dogs. The character's name eluded me but he is played by Emilo Echevarria.

The movie is in Spanish with English subtitles but I had no problem keeping up as there are not huge amounts of dialogue. Although each story is preceded by a blackout, all of the tales are interweaved throughout the film. Emphasis is on the story mentioned but you never lose
sight of the others.

The cinematography is excellent throughout and even the dog fight scenes are tastefully done. You get the point of the violence without being shown a lot of gore. The music is an
amazing mix of Mexican music and rock and roll and is perfectly fitted in the various sequences.

One of the stars is a large black dog named Cofi (aka Blackie). Richie is another dog star in the film.

Although there is a huge amount of violence in the movie, there are also comic elements especially with a hit that the street man is supposed to handle. I found his character to be the most engaging in the movie although it is well acted by all the actors.

"Amoresperros" lost out to "Crouching Tiger" but in a different year I think it might have won the best Foreign film. It is definitely worth seeing.

One final note: Let's play a game. Guess what the English title of the movie is. Is it Life Is a Batch, or a Botch, or a Butch or a Betch? At times, censorship can be really stupid and this is one of those times. But I'll play along and say the word is B*tch.