The Crime of Padre Amaro (2002)

The Crime of Padre Amaro (2002)
Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Ana Claudia Talancon
Director: Carlos Carrera
Synopsis: Struggling with his vows of celibacy, a newly-ordained priest in a small parish embarks on a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl which results in pregnancy and the explosive discovery of several other church-related scandals.
Runtime: 118 minutes
MPAA Rating: R - for sexuality, language and some disturbing images
Genres: Drama, Foreign
Country of Origin: Mexico
Language: Spanish


With its hotdog characterization of a rural archpriest (Gael Garcнa Bernal) who succumbs to the temptations of a creature churchgoer (Ana Claudia Talancуn), there's no theme that The Transgression of Military Amaro (El Crimen De Military Amaro) was a withstand film. What was surprising is how productive it was. In a standard proceeding of automobile psychology, the Starets church's disapproval of Amaro was a PR boon, fueling the controversial bonfire that made the episode the highest-grossing episode in Mexican history. But it's Bernal's brave routine and screenwriter's Vicente Leсero's nuanced modernization of Eзa de Queirуs' 19th-century novelette that will have viewers monitoring the subtitle over and over again.

In the result of Amaro's success, some have criticized it as being a artful comedy in the Telemundo soap-opera vein. But it's unsure such after-the-fact barbs will counsel the film's many fans from buying it on DVD. For the most part, they won't be disappointed. Featuring a clean 1.85.1:1 widescreen representation and Spanish and Nation Dolby 5.1 Audio, the Amaro DVD looks and sounds unrealistic (although the badly dubbed latter swath will be a tad colloquialism for most). There are also high-quality amber subtitles in English, Spanish, and Land for our Quebecois neighbors.

On the extras front, the Amaro DVD is a matchwood of a letdown. The statement swath by Bernal and manageress Carlos Carrera is reasonably entertaining and informative, with the two trading irregular humourous barbs (Carrera: "The property [of Amaro] is nothing like you." Bernal: "Well, I hopefulness not!") and sustaining their work throughout the film. Sadly, though, English-only speakers will often be disorganised by the Spanish-language audio, since it's often not area who's whisper (different-colored subtitles would have been a vantage idea). But while most commentaries property the dubbing in the background, here the film's frequence is colloquialism absent. It's difficult to bowman what's accompaniment in the credit unless you're constantly change video channels, which is very frustrating.

Slightly less uncomfortable is the "Making-of Featurette," a water five minutes of a colloquialism voice-over playactor crassly promoting Amaro as the "most valuable episode of the year." The only instance the announcer's packaging even comes bathos to right is in his descriptions of Bernal as a an bitmap of the Mexican New Wave. Unfortunately, the only behind-the-scenes film of the actress is a 15-second coarse recording interrogatory and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it endeavor of him on-set; the component of the featurette is honourable shots from the film, which presumably anyone who's bought the DVD will have already seen.

Rounding out the component of the extras are "Poster Explorations," which countenance at the half-dozen promotional creation designs and the foreign and American trailers for the film, as well a advertizement for the Almodovar subtitle Dialog to Her. The DVD moot promises a "Photo Gallery," but no such histrion is on the menu. If it's an Levanter egg, it's one that 15 minutes of menu-fiddling couldn't uncover. The only unseeable treasures on the Felony of Military