Too much of everything

Powerful

Memorable, crazy movie

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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!

I am not surprised that the Catholic church in Mexico found this film to be offensive. After all, it seems to be highly critical of the notion of celibacy and shows that just about all the priests in the film are hypocrites. So, at the outset, this film loses a large portion of its audience.Father Amaro (Gael García Bernal) is a very young priest who is on his way to his first parish. Soon after arriving, he becomes the intermediary between a renegade priest who spends time with EVERYONE (including drug lords) and the Bishop who wants to discipline him or bring him into compliance. However, choosing Father Amaro is, in hindsight, not a great idea, as Amaro is also outside the teachings of the Church. Why? Because Amaro has begun a sexual relation with Amelia (Ana Claudia Talancón)--one that will end in tragedy. In addition to these plots is a smaller one where you learn that Amaro's immediate supervisor himself is involved in romantic relationship of his own.This is a well made film but its message is a bit muddled for my taste. If the movie is asking for a debate on celibacy within the priesthood, it's case is confusing. Amaro is NOT just a guy in love but a genuinely bad person as you'll see by the end of the film. Additionally, the hot sex scenes make it a film that doesn't seem like it wants a dialog about celibacy--it is much more about hypocrisy. While I clearly understand why it chose that path, it makes the movie, to me, much less impactful. It's easy to say that the priests are all evil--it's tougher to say that the Church itself is in need of reform. Overall, well made but a film that could have been better--which is strange, as it was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar (though I must admit that 2003 was a very weak year for this category). Worth seeing but highly offensive.

It's amazing how folks can watch this film and still not grasp its meaning. Breaking a vow of celibacy for a priest is a sin, not a crime. The true crime of Padre Amaro is not that he fell into a sexual relationship with a forward young woman or that she was only 16 or any of that. His crime is revealed mostly in the very last scene of the film, though he commits it throughout the story.This is not a feel-good movie but an important one with a lot to say about the place of religion and those who practice it in today's world. Though there is no gratuitous sex or violence in the film the story is one of grotesque moral compromise and debauchery of the spirit. If Padre Amaro believes in his religious calling then he has surely embarked on the highway to Hell. Witness his journey - see this film.

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.