Starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Ana Claudia Talancon, Sancho Gracia, Angelica Aragon, Damian Alcazar

Plot Summary A story of a young priest, Father Amaro assigned to a church in a small village in remote Mexico, who falls in love with a teenage girl.

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Ok, I don’t normally watch a lot of foreign films but are all of them this freaking disturbing!? It was basically like, “let’s see how much shocking crap we can put in this movie!” Granted a lot of it is probably real and therefore should be seen, I just didn’t expect it to be in such large doses.

The film, if you haven’t guessed by the title, is in Spanish. It locates itself in Mexico and revolves around the Mexican Catholic Church. Being set in a church you wouldn’t expect much debauchery and corrupt behavior right? UBER WRONG. This is like the absolute most shady church that I have ever seen. A priest that rapes feral kids. The church allying with the mafia for extra money. A priest breaking his celibacy vow to have sex with a minor. The list goes on and on of sinful happenings in such a supposedly pious place. The premise is interesting in that it sheds a wildly different light on the catholic church, thus making the film one of the most controversial of the year. To what degree of truth this actually is we will never know. I’d say “pray” for fiction guys.

I’m not usually a fan of foreign films because of the slow pacing and “el crimen” falls victim to the same critique. I thought we had broken down barriers with movies like “Amelie” and “Run Lola Run” but there are still those that like to linger on with too many shots. There are many moments of no dialogue reserved for (I can only guess) reflectance, but it’s too slow for my taste. I’m wham bam thank you ma’am (Hmmm, I feel de ja vu with this phrase…), and turtle pace doesn’t fly my way. Or slow crawl my way to be more precise. I think the lack of music also made it feel slow. Anytime there was music, I noticed. This means that the music was way to sporadic, and it’s too bad since the music was actually kind of cool (Psycho like).

The jackpot in the movie was the two leads. Spanish actors…untapped resource I tell you. This guy, Gael Garcia Bernal, is a major hottie and was in two huge Spanish hits last year (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Amores Perros). He’s also breaking into Hollywood this year with a movie starring Monica Potter. It’s not hard to see why since chicks seem to totally swoon for his nice Spanish boy looks. He pulls off the titular character, Padre Amaro, nicely with very subtle acting. I like subtle acting. It beats flamboyant and outlandish acting in my book. The girl, Ana Claudia Talancon, who I guess is a relative unknown, is stunningly poignant as the naiveté that Padre Amaro corrupts. She should definitely be in more stuff. I say toss her some hooked-on-phonics too, and bring her over to Hollywood. Importing talent (aka stealing other country’s talent) is great.

Though a little disturbed by what I saw I was still entertained (mostly by the shocking subject material and the acting). The movie was a little disjointing in transitions and had no weaving of the story at all. It was very much “this is the first act-church corruption” “this is the second act – love story”…the end. Personally, I like more intricacy but it’s just a matter of preference. If you’re in for heavy and serious subject matter OR if you just want people to think you are culturally savvy and socially aware, then by all means, witness “el Crimen del Padre Amaro.”