Amores Perros, Mexico

Alejandro Inarritu’s Amores Perros shows how a single pivotal event could change many lives. The story centers on a car crash where two of the three main characters are injured: Octavio, who fights his dog Cofi and has fallen in love with his sister-in-law Susana, and Valeria, a superficial Spanish supermodel who recently married Daniel (who left his wife and kids for Valeria). A lonely drifter observes the accident and has his life changed by the injured Cofi, as well.

A central point in the film is the arrangement of elements in time. The story is told with overlapping segments, where we see the car crash first, then we get the events leading up to the car crash from a certain point of view, and then in the case of Valeria and El Chivo (the drifter) the aftermath of the car crash. With this overlapping, non-linear storyline one of the subtlest elements is foreshadowing. One such case of foreshadowing comes when Valeria (who has her leg severely injured in the car crash) looks out her window at a large billboard of herself, but her leg (from the perspective of the camera) is occluded, foreshadowing the ultimate amputation of her leg. More so than that, the rampant foreshadowing in the movie helps to tie together all the elements of the film by making each character, in some way, a part of the other character’s storyline besides the car crash. In this way, a central theme of human connectedness comes through in the twisted plotline because the characters are not only connected by the horrific accident but by many of the events in their everyday lives.

Amores Perros shines through its artistically gritty film style to present themes that are accessible to every audience, not just Mexican ones. The film, while being quick paced and full of the occasional melodrama or Hollywood-esque element, shows how a film can present very meaningful content in an entertaining, accessible, and passive way.