Rachel mentioned this week that Gael Garcia Bernal is in "pretty much everything these days." A bit of an overstatement perhaps -- especially since Spanish-language films don't generally get a wide release in the US -- but he does seem to make it into every Latin film that makes its way to the States. The Crime of Padre Amaro is no exception.
The film is based -- to what extent I'm not sure -- on the 1875 Portuguese novel of the same name by Jose Maria Eca De Queiros. In brief and without giving anything away, "a young, ambitious priest gives in to temptation" would serve as an adequate summary. However, the story has been updated to better match modern times in Mexico. The story also touches on topics that I suspect are important to modern Mexicans: the general lack of safety in the country, drugs and drug lords, guerrillas, and the Catholic church.
As an American, the most interesting part of the story for me was the glimpse it gives us into life in Mexico. If we were to compare this film with Y Tu Mama Tambien, another Spanish-language film that got a wide release in the US, this is where Y Tu Mama Tambien would come up short. While it is quite easy to see how Tambien could be remade here in American, The Crime of Padre Amaro relies on Latin culture to such an extent that it would fail to connect with American audiences if it were portraying Americans.
Another thing that I enjoyed in this film was how everything had a very different look to it than the films I'm used to seeing. From the way the sets look to the color of the light, everything in this film feels quite different from an American-made movie.
For those worried about watching a film with sub-titles, there is an English dub available, but I didn't much like it. The cadence of the language seems important to me, and the voice actors on the dub weren't very compelling.
[Diacritical marks are omitted because I don't know Spanish.]
Posted by david at November 9, 2004 11:20 AM