The church corrupts (El crimen del padre Amaro review)
{FILM DIARY}
El crimen del padre Amaro (Mexico/Spain/Argentina/France, 2002)
Seen: Friday, 15th May 2009 (DVD, repeat viewing)
Runtime: 114′
Director: Carlos Carrera
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Ana Claudia Talancón, Sancho Gracia, Angélica Aragón, Luisa Huertas, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Gastón Melo, Damián Alcázar, Andrés Montiel
Production House: Alameda Films, Artcam International, Blu Films, Cinecolor, Foprocine, Gobierno del Estado de Veracruz, Ibermedia European Community Program, Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía (IMCINE), Videocolor, Wanda Films
Plot: (from imdb)
Politics and sexual passions threaten to corrupt a young, newly-ordained priest in a small Mexican town.
Trailer
Impressions In Short
I watched this the first time at the Warsaw Film Festival almost 6 years ago. I didn’t remember it all that well, but it left a stronger impression on me back then. I still think it does a fairly good job at showing a certain mentality, but it wasn’t as good as I remembered it.
More About the Film
The trailer suggests the film is mostly about the sex and celibacy thing. Well, it’s not. There are a lot of other things corrupting the young, idealistic priest too ;) The relationships in the parish and even between parishes are just as important to the film and that’s the beauty of it. You can see how the whole political structure plays out and why the young priest finds it difficult to break out from it.
When I first saw this, it struck me how similar Mexican Catholicism is to Polish Catholicism. It’s the same mentality. And it’s really portrayed well.
But other than that, the film doesn’t have that much to offer IMO. Cinematically it’s not all that creative or interesting. And even the acting - it’s good enough (and the characters are interesting), but it’s not special.
Recommended?
Er, possibly. If you like Gael Garcia Bernal or Catholic church themes in film then it’s probably worth watching. Otherwise not necessarily.