Amores Perros

Amores Perros is a 2000 film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, centering around a cast of characters in Mexico City. Like both Babel and 21 Grams, Amores Perros employs multiple stories which weave together to form one complete narrative, shifting from one story to another and interlinking these stories with one central event. Much of the story draws inspiration from contemporary Mexico, displaying both the squalor and destitution residents experience as well as the beauty and riches of the upper classes. The wealth disparity in Mexico is quite deep, and this story spans from the bottom rung to the uppermost tier of the socioeconomic ladder in Mexico. The characters and their interactions drive the story, with each main character possessed by love and affected by crisis in a different way.

The stories are all similar to one another -- each primary character deals with love. Octavio is in love with his sister-in-law, Susan. Valeria is no longer in love with her husband, Daniel. El Chivo loves his daughter and wants nothing more than to reconnect with her. Each character also deals with a personal crisis -- Octavio is abandoned and betrayed by Susana; Valeria realizes she can no longer work as a model; El Chivo loses all of his dogs. Each character's reactions are different, however -- while Octavio is unchanged by the betrayal, continuing to yearn for his sister-in-law, Valeria is destroyed by it, losing meaning in her life with the loss of her career. El Chivo is perhaps the only character to grow for his crisis -- at the end, when he could have easily killed both men, he instead leaves them to decide each other's fate.

The central point in these stories is a terrible car crash. The first story culiminates with the car crash and the second begins with it, centering on the aftereffects of the accident on Valeria. The third story is interrupted by the car crash, just as El Chivo is lining up his shot. El Chivo is arguably the most important character and his narrative the most striking, though certainly the previous stories served as valuable framework for the movie. Unlike Octavio and Susan, he is not forced to live in squalor; it seems to be a lifestyle he has chosen. Unlike Valeria and Daniel, he does not have money and fame, and he shows no desire for it. El Chivo is able to reconcile his problems with love; though his rescued dog brutally massacres all of his other dogs, El Chivo is able to forgive the dog and continue seeking his love. When he finds her, however, he does not involve himself with her life, perhaps realizing his potential to poorly influence her or dramatically change her life. For this reason, El Chivo is the only character to receive a satisfactory ending and the only one able to move away from his problems.