EL CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO/THE
CRIME OF FATHER AMARO
Sex, abortion, money laundering, blackmail, violence, political corruption,
deflowering saintly virgins -- the only skeleton remaining in this clerical
closet, it seems, is pedophilia. Anyone looking for a screen exposé of
the Catholic Church to underscore the current sexual-abuse scandal will be
disappointed by this film from veteran director Carlos Carrera, but those
seeking an absorbing (if melodramatic) and beautifully shot story that
nonetheless indicts the Church for its ambition and hypocrisy will be
rewarded.
The movie is breaking box-office records in Mexico previously set by Y tu
mamá también, which also starred Gael García Bernal.
This time around Bernal is much less animated and sexy as a buttoned-down
priest who arrives in a rural parish. The richness of the story is that it
subtly discloses Amaro's naked ambition rather than the expected idealism. He
doesn't seem too fazed when his boss, Father Benito (Sancho Gracia), cavorts
with druglords in order to finance a hospital. Neither is he above putting the
squeeze, at the behest of the diocese bishop, on the local newspaper editor who
publishes a damning story about the corrupt priest.
The film does its best work in conveying the everyday political and social
power the Church wields in Mexico's provinces. It falls into a few soap-opera
conventions when it depicts the romance between Father Amaro and Amelia (Ana
Claudia Talancón), the ravishing teen who teaches kids at the church --
their tempestuous courtship seems more plot- than character-driven. But Carrera
makes the compelling case that these men of the cloth are part of an old and
corrupt institution that rewards ambition, despite what it does to the soul. In
Spanish with English subtitles. (88 minutes) Opens Friday at the
Columbus.
Issue Date: January 17 - 23, 2003
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