Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

"Arráncame la Vida" is a story from the perspective of Catalina Guzmán. At 16 she marries Andrés Ascencio and at 30 becomes his widow. He is a political machine always looking to rise within the ranks of politics the way he did in the military ranks during the Mexican Revolution. There were several omissions in the movie. Honestly, I believe that this is why the movie fell flat in a lot of ways, at least for me. I never thought I would be one of those people who says it wasn't as good as the book but it really was not as good as the book.In the book, you begin to like Andrés for various reasons as you continue reading because, even though he had moments of misogyny and murder, he was teaching her how life works and how people can be. He was teaching her to defend herself and survive all the Bull that people shovel your way especially when they see you alone and "vulnerable". After a while you really don't find Catalina all that charming. For a grown woman, she behaved very immaturely. It seemed as though throwing temper tantrums were her forté. When he does die, he does point out that he hurt her and he does it in a very direct way. They made light of that in the movie but it wasn't a light moment in the book. He also does not tell her he left her everything until he calls in the attorneys and changes his will in front of her. He says he leaves her everything of his own accord in front of witnesses, so that no one can contest the will. She is peeved because now she has to determine how things get distributed. The thing with the tea was open ended in the book because you don't know if she killed him or if he became addicted to the tea. According to the book, if you drank it in large amounts it could kill you. He was drinking it every day in large amounts in the book. She lets him know before he drinks the last of the tea that it would be best if he not have anymore but he insists. Reverse psychology? maybe.The other thing that they left out was the lesbian scene that Catalina has with Andrea Palma.Then the funeral. It was in the home during the wake that Rodolfo comes at her with offering to help her with the will. She tells him to stay out of it because she has it under control and does not need his help. He does not respond because he doesn't know how. He goes over to the casket and pretends to look heartbroken but the boredom sets in. Then there was also Rodolfo's desire for Catalina. She remembers when his fat ass chased her in a red dress Andrés had bought her in NY and she threatens Rodolfo with telling Andrés about his behavior. Rodolfo was interested in exploiting Andres's death to get into Catalina's pants and gain access to the fortune Andrés had amassed. He didn't think she was very smart or that she was a quality woman the way they inferred in the movie. The movie did not show Doña Herminia either. It also did not fully explain the story concerning his first wife. The movie did also not talk about Virginia. There was more to it than was inferred in the movie. The other thing was that he was going to be buried in Zacatlán. In the book it was raining which is significant. If you are going to watch this movie read the book afterward. I think you will enjoy the book more than the movie.

In my opinion this is by far the best and most important Mexican movie since "La Sombra del Caudillo". A movie also made from a novel in 1960 that was seized by the army and never released, and was done in the same style of using fictitious names. After I heard that this movie was filmed in my home town Puebla (I'm a US citizen now living in LA), and a candidate for a nomination for best foreign film, I rushed for the book and read it. It didn't take too long for me to realize who and what she (Angeles Mastretta) was talking about, and I loved it. So I rushed for the DVD and couldn't find it, but somehow I saw the movie. In the version that I saw, I noticed an important and brief episode from the book (among others) that was missing in the movie almost at the end. I'm referring to a serenade performed by the best and most popular artists in those days, Pedro Vargas and Agustin Lara (there's a statue of Lara in a park in Los Angeles), that ended in a clean fist fight won by the kid with the motorcycle, that the young daughter of the general loved, and who mysteriously died a few days later in a motorcycle accident (?). Who was the rich kid? Well, who could afford to take these artists to Puebla for a simple serenade? But who wants to be an enemy of the media anyway. I wonder if the richest man in the world, whose name appears at the end in the credits as contributor to the movie, also contributed to the omission of this episode or if it was not filmed at all, that, I don't know. But anyway that is not too important compared to another character that is almost invisible in the book (and movie) by the name of "Don Mike Heiss". If you find out who he really was then do a simple research, like I did, and visit the archives of the New York Times. You'll be surprise of these articles from 1917 (the year Zapata was murdered)-1919 (Villa was murdered a few years later) when USA was about to invade Mexico again just to liberate this special agent ("Heiss") from a Puebla penitentiary. "HEISS" became the richest man in Mexico and probably in the world after Rockefeller, and was the partner of all the richest man in Mexico at the time, with the help of "General Ascencio", who was in charge of making offers nobody could refuse. After "Ascencio" died, "Cienfuegos" became one of the richest men in the world during the six years he was president. All this just proves that unfortunately there is nothing to celebrate next year on the centennial of the revolution the 18th day of November 1910, with the exception of remembering Aquiles Serdan the first martyr of the unconsummated and so-called revolution, initiated also in my beautiful home town of Puebla de Los Angeles (Mastretta?). The acting in this movie is the best I've seen in many years. Thank you Ana Claudia, Daniel and Roberto, from now on you are my favorite actors and director. Please don't go to Hollywood, you all are more needed in Mexico.

This movie may contain some strong scenes, but it is a good screenplay that becomes great by the excellent performance of Daniel Gimenez Cacho. Ana Claudia Talancon makes a good performance look even better by her beauty. But unfortunately not all actors in this movie are good, I'm talking of the horrible work that Jose Maria de Tavira does in this movie, its a bad acting work but it looks like garbage compared to his coworker Gimenez Cacho. The screenplay its a great adaptation of the books written by Angeles Mastretta, this screenplay was done by the author of the book and the director, Roberto Sneider. The movie takes a theme that reminds you of La Ley de Herodes, so it portrays the old fashion politicians in Mexico, which still exist. The directors work is a good work which makes you try to remember his name, i personally hadn't seen any of his previews works but now that I've seen this one I'm sure gonna see his next work, he directed Dos Crimenes with Pedro Armendariz Jr. and Damian Alcazar. The movie is worth seeing and you enjoy it a great deal thanks to the acting of Gimenez Cacho, i hope to see more lead roles from him. So i hope you enjoy this one, and it has been already released so i don't know why it is shown as in production still.

Mexican director Roberto Sneider wrote the script of "Tear This Heart Out" ("Arráncame la Vida") with the author and winner of the Mazatlán Prize for Literature for the best book of the year Ángeles Mastretta published in Mexico in 1985 partially inspired by the life of Maximino Ávila Camacho, a four-star general in Mexico's revolutionary forces, brother of Manuel Ávila Camacho who was President of Mexico from 1940 to 1946...The film opens with the beautiful Catalina Guzmán (Ana Claudia Talancón) marrying at her early age a charismatic and cunning general named Andrés Ascencio (Daniel Giménez Cacho), much older than her… Dazzled by his world, Catalina escorts him on his political campaigns, perceiving at his side the intriguing political systems to obtain social justice... Catalina, a smart but not an educated young woman, dedicates years of her youth to a 'loving' husband… She comes to Puebla to hear from the voice of her man, the governor of the beautiful city, that soon she will be the First Lady of Mexico as he considers himself the best-qualified candidate to win the race for the Presidency... But one day, Catalina finds out that her arrogant and prepotent macho man is cheating on her with several women and has several children out of that relationship… But in spite of all that, and observing her husband's pervert and bad manners, Catalina continues to live with Andrés, to bear his two children, to train his others children in her family, to serve him as his adviser and to guide him to win elections, taking intense pleasure from that attitude… Nevertheless she learns that life and power are not always so pink… There is a scene during her pregnancy, where we saw her detecting that she is totally neglected… So, for the first time we watch her taking pleasure in having a love affair with a teenager who cherished her dearly… But the movie takes a dramatic turn when Catalina falls really in love with a concertmaster... And it was forbidden for her to fall in love! And she executes her cruel vengeance on Andrés sharing the musician' bed ignoring the predestined course of his future fate… And here Roberto Sneider's motion picture clearly comes off with three significant national old traditions: the 1930's post-revolutionary Mexico, the very crucial point for the Mexican girl, the "rite of passage," and the traditional macho man… The film is a love story through which three main characters are important for the viewer: Andrés, the charming officer, the great orator with the voice so thrilling and so impacting… His wife Catalina divulging how meaningless and insincere his promises are… And Carlos (Jose María de Tavira), the leader of the orchestra, the future of a new Mexico, the rebel, and what Mexico is expecting from her younger men… The motion picture presents the concept of the long-suffering Mexican woman vanishing here with Catalina as seen powerful of character, efficacious and extreme in having an affair with the man she deeply falls in love, intense in degree to accept whatever she is asked from her lover to carry out… Her representation of the submissive wife, in a macho world where women are suppressed and their voices not heard, has fallen with her determined and ambivalent character here, as near Carlos, Catalina is another woman who wishes, requests, and desires intensely the enjoyment of her personal liberty and personal efficacy… The result is a fine rich movie with many captivating visuals of the stunning state of Puebla, and definitely a must-see, at least for the Mexican viewers