The first story features Octavio (Gael García Bernal), an intense young man who lives with his brother Ramiro (Marco Pérez) and Ramiro's attractive and pregnant wife Susana (Vanessa Bauche).
Octavio is in love with Susana, and since Ramiro verbally and physically abuses Susana, Octavio wants to leave with her to Juarez. Octavio enters his dog into a series of dogfights to raise funds for their planned trip. Because it is a movie, the untrained dog wins every fight, making Octavio temporarily wealthy at the expense of Jarocho (Gustavo Sánchez Parra), yet another stereotype of the menacing, violent, and criminal machismo Mexican young man.
Although Octavio succeeds in having an affair with Susana, and now has a thick wad of cash, she still won't leave with him, even though she is married to a monster who is having a torrid affair with a co-worker and committing a string of armed robberies. While losing yet another dogfight bet to Octavio, Jarocho shoots Octavio's dog. Octavio stabs Jarocho and flees with his shot dog, pursued by Jarocho's heavies.
The car chase ends in a devastating crash. Octavio is seriously injured but survives, as does the supermodel in the other car, Valeria (Goya Toledo). Octavio's dog is left for dead on the street and adopted by Chivo (Emilio Echevarría), an eccentric middle-aged loner and ex-convict and terrorist.
Valeria is the star of the middle third of the movie. She moves in with her successful businessman boyfriend, Daniel (Álvaro Guerrero) who has left his wife and children to be with Valeria. The love of her life, though, is her little mutt.
The car accident then takes place. Valeria returns home in a wheelchair. A plot contrivance leaves a hole in the floor, which is never covered up because it is a movie. The little mutt falls in the floor and, because it is a movie, will not return to the hole to be picked up. Naturally, Valeria obsesses over the fate of the whimpering dog, but her boyfriend won't tear up more of the floor to rescue the dog, because it is a movie. This goes on for several days, leading to predictable arguments between Valeria and Daniel.
The third plot involves Chivo, who has become a hitman to earn money to buy the love or forgiveness of his estranged grown daughter Maru (Lourdes Echevarría). Chivo is paid by Gustavo (Rodrigo Murray) to murder his own brother, who, like many other men in this movie, is cheating on his family with another woman.
How others will see it. This violent and tumultuous depiction of Mexico City was a sensation on the festival circuit. Ultimately, it won a whopping 11 Ariel Awards, and was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at both the Oscars and BAFTA, winning at the latter. The film was also a great financial success, and led to a Hollywood career for director Iñárritu with the hit films 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful, and Birdman, which stars It-girl Emma Stone.
At imdb.com, Amores Perros has a whopping 110K user votes, and its user rating of 8.1 out of 10 places it within that website's vaunted Top 250 list. The only naysayers come from women over 45, who grade it a much lower 6.4, probably due to the unpleasant characters that populate the film.
How I felt about it. Amores Perros is obviously influenced by Pulp Fiction, but it lacks the witty dialogue and cool retro score of the Tarantino classic. It retains the penchant for ultra-violence. Valeria's story seems out of place nestled between two crime dramas. We dislike the build-up of Chivo into a charismatic antihero, when he is fact a terrorist and murderer who abandoned and disgraced his family.
What is the moral? We expect Crime Doesn't Pay, and in general, it doesn't. Ramiro is snuffed, Octavio is left with nothing, Jarocho has his belly slashed, Gustavo and his brother end up fighting over a handgun with only one "winner" to emerge. Chivo gives away his dirty money to his daughter. It seems the only criminal to come out ahead is Mauricio (Gerardo Campbell), the obese dog fighter.
The real moral, however, is Get Out of Mexico City, the apparent apex of world violence, murder, and infidelity. I suggest Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average and nobody has to lock their doors at night.
That leaves the question, why is this film so acclaimed and beloved when it falls short of greatness? Could it be that the public favors lurid entertainment over quality? This would explain the success of many reality shows.