El crimen del padre Amaro
A long time ago, when I was planning to watch all movies with my favorite actors in them, I have had “El crimen del padre Amaro” on my plans. Back in the day, I would probably have hated the movie for its formulaic character. Now, I think I have actually become less pressured to turn every single movie I watch into a mind-blowing experience, and sometimes it’s alright to see a film just to stare at Gael’s beautiful face.
As much as I thought “Amores perros” was a great movie, I never got behind the idea as to why GGB’s character was so incredibly in love with that girl who was boring, plain and even more lame than a typical damsel in distress. The girl in this film has much more character. Despite her piousness, she practically declared her love to a priest during confession. On top of that, I found the actress to be really pretty; that helped a lot I am sure. All in all, I thought that the two had great chemistry together, and that was perhaps one of the biggest benefits of the film.
Apart from that, “El crimen del padre Amaro” is a rather cheap melodrama – priest falls in love with girl, impregnates her and she dies at the attempt of aborting the child. Perhaps the original novel (which was actually portuguese) was better written and had richer side character contributing to the depiction of 19th century Portugal as a rotten society in which the church regularly abuses its power. But the film itself is not so worth it, apart from its pretty looks.