Gael Garcia Bernal, Emilio Echevarria
This Mexican movie, just beaten out for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, starts off with a literal bang. A Mexico City car crash slams together—then, over the next 2 ½ hours, disentangles—three stories in which dogs are key players. There's a boy whose Rottweiler has been shot, a homeless man surrounded by mongrels, and a model with a walking powder puff of a pooch. As far as moviemaking goes, Amores Perros (loose translation: "Love's a bitch") is a dazzler, fluid and sharp. At heart, though, it's softly sentimental. By the end the homeless man, who turns out to be an occasional hit man, is leaving a weepy phone message for the daughter he abandoned. (R)
Bottom Line: More bark than bite
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