The Crime of Padre Amaro (2002)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I decided to watch this because as you know, I do love romantic movies that made sense and this is one of them. It does tell you how twisted and cold the Catholic Church is when it comes to their priests among their followers. I wouldn't talk negative to people who consider themselves to be Catholic because people have the right to their own beliefs. Its just I found that in the movie, I thought the Catholic Church were treating their priests poorly as if they are nobodies if they ever made love to a person of the same or the opposite sex. Its just a disgrace, even though, I would've rather if Amaro told the community that he was the father of the girls child and he was the lover all along. It makes you want to shout at him and tell him that he has the right to say what happened. Although it was a awful ending when she died but still, it would make every Catholic Church wake up and realise, we are all human beings. We have the right to love and who we choose to love!In my opinion, this movie was very good but I found the ending was very sad. It makes you think that keeping everything hush hush like that, damages you until the day you lay to rest. I honestly felt very bad after watching it. I'm glad they showed this before the Catholic Church would put a stop at showing it in every cinemas all over the world! We all have the right to know what goes behind clothes doors because let me tell ya, you would always find out in the end of what is really happening to our world!

Directed by Carlos Carrera, starring Gael Garcia Bernal (Amaro), Sancho Gracia (Benito), and Ana Talancon (Amelia), this film examines the presence of the Catholic church in Mexico and the grip it has on Mexican politics and reality (ironically, efforts were made by the church to block the film). It is based on the Portugese novel "O Crimen do Padre Amaro" by Queiroz. There are no fast-paced, action-packed and flashy qualities present in many blockbusters nowadays, but the film does keep one's interest in the melodrama and hypocrisy that unfolds.The movie starts with a fresh, newly ordained priest (Amaro) who is sent to a small town to study under the seasoned Benito. Amaro is immediately awakened to hypocrisy and corruption that his Catholic counterparts are steeped in. Amaro's morality is tested against his ambition, and the things like love and truth fall victim to his quest for power.The movie asks the crucial question, "What place does the Catholic church have in the modern era?" The movie treats the tradition of the church as an artifact, lost long ago and replaced by actions that are non-compatible with its teachings. This is voiced by Carrera in the opening scene where Amaro drives by Catholic tombstones: "They don't mean anything - they are forgotten." But the church remains very powerful, having symbiotic relationships with drug lords, government and media that allow it to persist and influence Mexico.So much detail was taken in the film's depiction of Mexico: the contrast of modernity and tradition (donkeys and cars on the streets), the economic woes of the 1990s and resulting corruption, the Catholic church's scandals, and increasing liberalism at the time. Although the movie does require some patience, it is well worth it. The film is thoughtful in every possible way, and the two main characters are quite the lookers.-JonLuther

For many priests, celibacy is a true vocation which liberates them... For others, it is a lifelong struggle... If celibacy was made voluntary, not only would many priests be happier, but the Church would be richer... Above all, it might decide the only way to restore the numbers of the priesthood, and that seems to me not a bad idea...In "The Crime of Father Amaro," the top film in Mexican box-office history, Carlos Carrera shows that even a man with morals and scruples betrays the nature of his profession, mostly when he brazenly criticizes the priesthood, and questions the Catholic Church's representatives on a variety of charges like illicit love affair, corruption, drug dealing, and hypocrisy...The story takes a liberal priest, Father Amaro(Gael Garcia Bernal), protégé of a repulsive obese bishop (Ernesto Gomez Cruz), to the remote dusty village of Los Reyes to assist the older priest of the parish Father Benito (Sancho Gracia) in his daily work...Amaro quickly realizes that virtually every fellow priest is involved in something immoral, and that his aging superior is receiving financial help from the region's drug lord for the construction of a new church-run hospital, and is secretly spending his cold nights with the proprietress of a local restaurant Augustina (Anjelica Aragón). He also discovers that Father Natalio (Damian Alcazar) is suspected of aiding the revolutionary factions in opposing the drug lords and mobsters...Amaro's own weaknesses is put to the test when he finds himself led into temptation by Augustina 's extremely sensual teenager Amelia (Ana Claudia Talancón) a relationship that eventually goes way outside the bounds of his priestly oath... and, without any sign of inner turmoil, he embarks on a passionate affair with the devout catechism teacher...Amalia—for whom loving a young priest serves as an extension of her deep piety—decides that the good-looking priest is the one for her and rejects her disappointed boyfriend, the aggressive reporter Ruben (Andres Montiel) who wrote an article alleging that the hospital is a front for laundering drug money...The polemical film focuses on blasphemous scenes as on a vicious priest who stops at nothing, even by continuing the lies and hypocrisy to protect his career...

I enjoyed this movie, not because it was gripping or exciting, but because of what it had to say.I'm not completely aware of everything to do with the Catholic Church, but the controversy in this movie is a necessary one.I've never seen a Gael Garcia movie before and I thought this was good. The most powerful part of the movie is what it leaves you with - the message at the end; the themes of confession, of sin, of mistakes, of being human.If you can't watch something that is quite slow and is not edge of the seat stuff, then forget it. Even the music isn't very memorable. But the movie stuck in my mind.