Synopsis
A recently ordained priest (Bernal) is sent to help an aging priest run a small parish church in rural Mexico. He meets a beautiful young woman (Talancón) with a religious passion that borders on obsession upon arriving at his new post. Quickly her passion for her faith becomes helplessly entangled in a growing attraction to the new priest. But when the handsome priest crosses the line that separates temptation from sin, he finds himself torn between the divine and the carnal, the righteous and the unjust.

Critique
The Crime of Padre Amaro is now the highest-grossing film in Mexico. Part of its success, I assume, comes from its provocative and controversial story. The characters, however, play an integral part of the story. Bernal plays Padre Amaro who starts a forbidden, yet intimate relationship with an 18 year-old girl. The controversy starts right here, because priests are obviously not allowed to engage in sexual relationships. The Catholic Church acted on this and called for a boycott of the film on religious grounds. Based on an 1875 Portuguese novel by Eca de Quieros, The Crime of Father Amaro, the new film from director Carlos Carrera, has been updated to modern Mexico.

The film spends most of its two-hour running time depicting the secrets and shortcomings of the characters. The characters have a good presence thanks to the casting, but overall they feel too shallow and underdeveloped to be part of an issue such as this film attempts to dramatize. Nevertheless, Bernal carries the film surprisingly well on his own. Perhaps it is his familiarity with viewers. Although there is the question whether he’s believable as a priest, yet I didn’t have a quarrel with his portrayal and performance. The Crime of Padre Amaro faces a potentially large problem by having too many little subplots in conjunction with the major issue, namely Amaro’s sexual relationship. The subplots tend to convolute the storytelling, forcing the pace to slow down in the process. This problem is lifted to an extent, however, by the production values and Carrera’s direction. The Crime of Padre Amaro presents and examines a controversial issue, but even though great performances and direction are present, the film feels a little to manipulative in its dramatization of the events.

7 out of 10

Video
Columbia presents The Crime of Padre Amaro in a digitally mastered anamorphic video transfer. The picture quality is very decent and the mastering of it comes across nicely. Throughout the film, however, I noticed spots of grain and dirt on the print. The color palette is subdued at times, but most daylight scenes consist of various bright colors. Darker scenes tend to suffer from weak black levels, but the impact on the viewing experience is not a factor.

7 out of 10

Audio
The Crime of Padre Amaro is really not the type of film to make much use of surround sound and it doesn’t even though it is equipped with Spanish and English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. The audio presentation is nevertheless clear and sharp as dialogue and Rosino Serrano’s original score grace the audio channels. I can’t say much for the surround sound because the rear speakers rarely come to life, but overall it is a decent presentation.

6 out of 10

Extras
Audio Commentary – Director Carlos Carrera and Actor Gael García Bernal discuss The Crime of Padre Amaro. They sound conversational and at times will pause for a few moments. However, since I don’t speak Spanish I cannot get anything out of this commentary. Nevertheless, it’s great these two guys have the opportunity to speak about their film.

Making of Featurette – The focus here is on the process of making the film. It’s pretty self-explanatory. English subtitles are available for you to understand the interviews with the cast and crew. Also available in this section is a Photo Gallery and Poster Explorations in addition to a set of Theatrical Trailers. In addition, English, Spanish and French subtitles are available. The menus are somewhat animated and navigation is very easy. The 119-minute feature is organized into 28 chapter stops.

7 out of 10

Overall
The Crime of Padre Amaro is a very decent drama featuring some very fine performances and really good direction by Carrera, but its manipulative fashion takes away some quality. The DVD features two above average video and audio transfers and a nice set of deserving features. The Crime of Padre Amaro comes recommended with reservations. Rent it.

Overall DVD Rating: 7 out of 10 (not an average)

Dennis Landmann
www.moviefreak.com