While the film was starting, a note came up. However, I didn’t read it as it was in Mexican and I was sorting out my subtitles. The note, it turns out, stated that “No dogs were harmed in the production of this film”. This is a rather big indicator that if you don’t like animal violence, Amores Perros may not be the film for you.For those who can deal with such imagery, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s debut film (before he went on to win Oscars for Birdman and Revenant), shows a gritty tale about crime in Mexico’s slums with great vigour.

The whole film centres around a car crash and looks at the characters before and after it. We jump between characters as their lives cross, with Inarritu setting up questions we will see answered later on. We jump around in time, although there tends to be some form of chronology about it. Structurally, it plays out like a Mexican Pulp Fiction. It just doesn’t have the juvenile humour that Tarantino usually brings.

The first story sees Octavio in love with his brother’s wife Sophia. She is pregnant and he wants to run away with her. When he accidentally discovers his dog’s talent for dog fighting, he uses him to get money in illegal underground fights. As he earns more money, he becomes more confident in standing up to his brother and hatches a plan to run away with Sophia. Octavio doesn’t seem like a good guy and you never really support him. The only redeeming factor is that his brother Romero is a worse guy with a bad temper who doesn’t treat his wife well. This whole section of the film is completed at breakneck speed and 40 minutes in, it feels like we are getting to the end of the film, but it is only beginning. In amongst this section of the film are clues to what happens in the rest of the film.

The second focus after the crash. After super-model Valeria has moved in with her husband Daniel, she is in the crash and she loses the ability to walk and carry on her work as she is badly injured. While in the flat, she throws a ball for her dog to fetch. When she throws it into a gap under the floor boards, the dog gets it, but doesn’t come up. She is worried its trapped with the rats and its down there for days. Its a fantastic metaphor for Valeria’s mental state as she becomes more desperate and frenzied. We hear the dog more and more, sounding more panicked each time and by the end you start to question whether she is imagining sounds. Its much slower, but as emotionally present as the first part and the style is of full credit to Inarittu as he keeps us interested.

The final story focuses on seemingly homeless nutjob El Chivo. So far in the story, we’ve seen him wonder around the streets very scruffily with his five dogs, shoot a man through a window and watch a funeral from a distance. We see questions answered in his quest for moral redemption as he picks up Romero’s dog from the car crash. I won’t say much more about this part as it involves moments from other stories and the pay off is seeing them add up.

At over two and a half hours, a film can easily become boring. Yet the uncompromising story lines, interesting natural characters a brilliant script keep you watching for the whole thing. Structurally, this film is at its strongest. You see seemingly meaningless things, yet you know they will be part of the story. You build up part of a mental picture, yet there is a big enough gap to be filled in with any number of twists and turns.

It feels like you’re in a pressure cooker with every single scene either being shot indoors or in some cramped outside area. We never really see any open skies or fields as this impoverished criminal life seems inescapable. Throwing in some incredible editing to make the dog fighting seem appallingly realistic, the director puts together a harsh reality for all of our characters. The fast moving action and the loud blaring music and having nobody to really root for and the film becomes a fantastic intense watch.

Summary

Gritty with some startling imagery, Amores Perros provides an expert guide to story telling keeping up a pace and emotional intensity which keeps you interested for all 154 minutes. [Grade: A]