Amore Perros (Love's a Bitch) is a film about intersections.
And dogs.
And Love.
The film has a jumbled narrative which really works, for a change. This is not a linear narrative with a mixed up time line just for the hell of it. This is really three stories in parallel and only at the end do they come together at a particular intersection in Guadalahara.
Love and the decisions we make because we are in love (or think we are) and the disasterous consequences of those decisions is portrayed very well in this film. There are three love stories here, and each one of them is a triangle.
In the first, Octavio is in love with his brother's wife, Susana. Octavio and his brother, Ramairo, jointly own a Rottweiler. Octavio enlists the dog in fighting and saves his winnings in order to run off to Juarez with Susana. Ramairo is a check out clerk by day and a stick up man by night. This complex little triangle leads to some disasterous consequences.
In the second triangle, Daniel is married and has two daughters. He leaves his wife and family to live with his mistress, Valeria. Valeria is a successful and beautiful model. Valeria owns one of those fluffy little lap dogs. Whereas Octavio and Susana's disaster is entirely of their own making, what happens to Valeria and Daniel is due much more to random circumstances. Although the disaster leaves Daniel longing for the stability of his wife and daughters.
The last triangle is the least successful because post September 11th it is hard for any American audience to have sympathy for a terrorist. El Chivo is torn between love of revolution and love of family. At a young age, he chose revolution and terrorism. After 20 years in prison, he now makes his living as an assassin. He cleverly disguises himself by becoming one of the invisible street people that appears to carry his worldly possessions around in a cart and is followed by a pack of mongrel dogs that he has befriended.
El Chivo longs to reestablish a relationship with his daughter, Maru, who thinks he is dead. In doing so, he loses his taste for his profession. His last job involves two half-brothers who are business partners. El Chivo cleverly finds a way to complete his job and take the money, without directly killing. I found the story of the two brothers far more compelling than El Chivo and his plight.
The dog fighting in this film is particulary gruesome. I was happy that the video had a short section after the credits that showed how the filming was accomplished without actually hurting the dogs.
4 flames.
