Crimen del padre Amaro, El (2002)

Director:

Carlos Carrera

Writers:

Vicente Leñero (writer)
Eça de Queirós (novel)

Release Date:

16 agosto 2002 (Mexico)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Frase comercial:

Lead us not into temptation

Plot:

Politics and sexual passions threaten to corrupt a young, newly-ordained priest in a small Mexican town.

Plot Keywords:

Priest | Melodrama | Priest In Love | Bishop | Abortion

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 20 wins & 13 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Hypocrites in heaven

Cast

Gael García Bernal	...	Padre Amaro
Ana Claudia Talancón	...	Amelia
Sancho Gracia	...	Padre Benito Díaz
Angélica Aragón	...	Augustina Sanjuanera
Luisa Huertas	...	Dionisia
Ernesto Gómez Cruz	...	Obispo / Bishop
Gastón Melo	...	Martín
Damián Alcázar	...	Padre Natalio Pérez
Andrés Montiel	...	Rubén de la Rosa
Gerardo Moscoso	...	Doc
Alfredo Gonzáles	...	Viejo / Old Man
Pedro Armendáriz Jr.	...	El Presidente Municipal Gordo / Mayor Gordo (as Pedro Armendáriz)
Verónica Langer	...	Amparito
Lorenzo de Rodas	...	Don Paco de la Rosa
Roger Nevares	...	Padre Galván

También conocida como:

The Crime of Father Amaro (International: English title) (UK) (USA) (literal English title)
Crimen del padre Amaro, El (Argentina) (Spain)
Crime du père Amaro, Le (France)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality, language and some disturbing images.

Duración:

USA:118 min

País:

Mexico | Spain | Argentina | France

Idioma:

Español

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Dolby Digital

Clasificación:

Singapore:R21 (cut) | Portugal:M/16 | Iceland:12 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Brazil:16 | Canada:14A | Chile:14 | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | New Zealand:R13 | Norway:15 | South Korea:18 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico

Company:

Alameda Films

Trivialidades:

This movie began creating controversy even before it was released. Several groups, most of them related to church, tried to ban the movie. They did not succeed; instead, tickets were sold out on opening weekend.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: When the photographer gets killed there's a shadow of the boom mike on the top left right before he gets stabbed.

Quotes:

Father Amaro: You are more beautiful than the Virgin.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Benchwarmers (2006)

Soundtrack:

Chingón de Chingones

Hypocrites in heaven

This film from Mexico, based on a novel by Portuguese author, Eca de Queiroz, was a surprise. It shows what a talented director, Carlos Carrera, can create with the material and the cast assembled to play it. Credit has to go to the scenario written by Vicente Leñeros, adapting the original material and bringing the action to present day rural Mexico.

The turmoil within the Catholic church is in the headlines of the media and this story deals with the hypocrisy of father Amaro in not practicing what the church wants him to teach these poor people. Instead of presenting the priest as a pedophile, it shows us this man as a normal person with an obsession for a beautiful young woman who is attracted to him as well.

Poor Amalia, the young woman, in the story, she is repeating what her own mother is doing on the sly with the older priest, father Benito, something that young father Amaro gets to know as soon as he arrives in the small town he has been assigned to serve. In many rural areas of Latin America these men have been known to develop entanglements such as the one we see with father Benito and Amelia's mother, La Sanjuanera.

After the mutual attraction comes out of the surface, father Amaro thinks of nothing about seducing Amelia against his better judgment. His is a passion that can't be stopped; it will prove the younger's priest downfall.

Gael Garcia Bernal is an excellent actor, as he has demonstrated in Amores Perros and Y tu mama tambien. He goes surprising us from one film to the next in that he's always believable; he never makes a false move, or strike a wrong note. Had he been an actor in the USA, he would have been a household face by now. Obviously, he makes very good choices getting involved in the right films.

The rest of the cast is very effective. Sancho Garcia as father Benito is very good. Ana Claudia Talancon has a lovely face. Her Amelia is all trust and love for a man that wasn't worthy of her.

The ending where father Amaro is celebrating mass sends a shiver of fear as we realize that he is remorseless of what he has done and will have no one to answer for his crime. He will probably go to bigger and better things since the church, obviously has prepared him to be what he is: a hypocrite and a coward!