Irishchatter 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!

billcr12 Gael Garcia Bernal was Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries and is just as good as Father Amaro, a Catholic priest filled with doubt about his life's meaning. The good father is sent by a bishop to a small parish where a Father Benito is having a well known affair with a woman with a restaurant in their village. Benito is building a hospital for the poor with money from a drug dealer. Another priest, Padre Natalio is under investigation for his support of left wing revolutionaries. Father Benito's mistress's daughter, Amelia, teaches religion to children. She is only 16 years old and engaged to be married to Ruben who is an atheist while she is a firm believer. Amelia goes to confession to Father Amaro and asks him about love and sin and the man of the cloth soon has impure thoughts about the beautiful teenage girl. Her fiancé Ruben is a journalist and he writes about the corruption, including money laundering involving Father Benito and he is fired by the newspaper due to pressure from the powerful church influence. Amelia breaks off the engagement and begins a sexual relationship with Father Amaro. The moral dilemma is not resolved with a polyannish, everyone living happily ever after nonsense, but with an extremely realistic and heart breaking ending which will remain with you for a long time. The Crime of Father Amaro is a brave and challenging film.

Amanda Madrigal While at times Carlos Carrera's film adaptation of The Crimes of Padre Amaro seemed to progress slowly, the significance of the film was not lost. The silent dialogue powered the film ---the unspoken sentences allude to the hidden hypocrisy, greed, and corruption within the church. So much of the film's language was captured through lightening, camera movement, and glances shared amongst the actors of the film.Viewing this film the audience glimpses into Amaro's mind. The camera travels to give insight into the thoughts of the Padre Amaro. Natural light or very little lighting is frequently utilized in the film to mask the characters half-hidden in shadows and to emphasize specific focal points such as eyes and close views of facial expression. Often the camera lingers emphasizing the silent or somber moments of the film, the moments when these individuals are lost to contemplate their predicaments.In many instances this film draws us away from the religion that permeates the film only to call us back and remind us that these are people obligated to their faith---an oath. This is done with music as well as the focus of the camera. Very little music is used in the film. In scenes of intense passion---such as the first truly intimate moments of Amelia and Amaro music is deliberately removed from the scene. This is a scene that is neither glamorized nor criticized. Aside from music heard coming from car radios etc. the only other music used throughout the film was classical often played in times of conflict between the actions and the religion of the characters. Like music, the camera plays upon these times of internal/external conflict. When Amaro and Amelia share their first kiss in the pews of the church the camera pans away from these two people and instead zooms in upon the figure of a porcelain Virgin Mary.The film successfully draws attention to the very reality of conflict that exist between religion, politics, and the internal struggles of the individuals within these systems.

Philby-3 Gael Garcia Bernal is a young actor of the moment, having made his mark in several interesting Mexican and Spanish films before tackling Hollywood. He is good at playing innocents who are about to learn that life is not so pure and wholesome as they imagined. In this film he plays a high-principled but weak-willed young Mexican Catholic priest who sets out to be a saint but becomes just another compromised clergyman. The story is taken from a 19th century Portuguese novel though updated to the present day. The film was not warmly received by certain Catholic activists who wanted it suppressed; in reality they are 125 years too late. The keen young Padre Amaro (Bernal) is sent by his worldly Bishop to a provincial town for some exposure to parish life. The local priest, Padre Benito (Sancho Gracia), is up to his eyeballs in sleaze. He is sleeping with local restaurant proprietor Augustina who provides his meals, and laundering money for the local drug baron via donations to his pride and joy, a local hospital under construction. He is also pressuring another local priest, Padre Natalio (Damián Alcázar), to stop supporting local guerrilla activity directed at the drug lords, and is suppressing unfavourable newspaper coverage of his activities. Padre Amaro is shocked at all this but nevertheless manages to fall in love with Augustina's 16 year old daughter Amelia (Ana Claudia Talancón). Amelia is easy prey - she becomes aroused just thinking of Jesus – and the Padre arranges a back room in his sacristan's workshop for their trysts. But it's hard to keep a secret in a small town; first Padre Benito finds out and then the egg hits the proverbial fan as Amelia discovers she is pregnant.The story does indeed not put the Church in a favourable light. The venalities of the clergy are exposed but what is perhaps more telling is that the faithful are faithful because they know no better. The faith has become a way of keeping people ignorant. As an adaptation from the novel the story is told in a straightforward narrative fashion. The main performances are very strong and the intimacy between Padre Amaro and Amelia beautifully portrayed. There are other minor interesting characters but there is not much space in a movie treatment for them.