The Richie subplot ruined this movie! (AWFUL!) *Spoiler*

I don't feel as passionate as you but I agree. The 2nd story was absurd. I was thinking the same things while watching it. Honestly? You can't get your dog out of the crawl space in 4 days? Just sleep on it, he'll come out some day. In the meantime we'll just listen to him whine and whimper every night while we try to sleep. It was ridiculous and detached me from being engrossed and reminded me that I was just watching a movie. Yes, I understand the point: the dog's suffering (which was the central theme to the rest of the movie) was a reflection of the characters' suffering. But it didn't need to be so silly and implausible here. I couldn't relate to the characters or their behavior, and I couldn't have cared less about them; which made it all the more taxing on my nerves to watch them scream at each other.

The first story was OK, but I honestly had no compassion for it because I just didn't care about the characters. I didn't hate them, I didn't love them, I wasn't amused by them. They were miserable and boring people. They were stupid, dirty, and disgusting. The plot and execution (especially with the dog fighting) took some balls and it was creative. I'll give it that.

The third story was my favorite because El Chivo was so intriguing. I was impressed with how the story unfolded when he dealt with his "contract" the way he did. That was a creative and thought-provoking scene (but out of the 150 minute movie it was the only 5 minutes that increased my brain activity rather than numbing it).

For a first time full-length movie director and first time producer, I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Because...wow...for someone to do that on his first try is really impressive, to be fair. But all in all I give the film 2 out of 5 stars. The acting was fantastic, and so was the photography and editing. It was a gutsy film. But the characters gave me no reason to care about them or what happened to them. Also, the suffering dogs was a cheap gimmick. Instead of allowing the stories and characters to provoke my thoughts and feelings, the director used constant suffering of dogs to do the deed instead. In one story I could have bought it, but not in all three stories. It was a manipulative low blow. Also the "linking" of the 3 stories, as well as showing some of the events out of sequence was weak and added no value. It came across as the director having seen something cool that worked in other films, and so he shoe-horned these devices into this movie instead of writing them in organically.

Are you Serious!?!
This is a better , Emotional, & Realistic version of Pulp Fiction.

Valeria was OUT OF WORK, because of her injury, also her husband, Daniel must have lost half of what he owned to his first wife, also that apartment building was a fortune & he must have had trouble getting paid if he were to come home early because of Valeria's needs.

Dogs are COLOR BLIND, they mostly see black & white, besides Richie must have been to short to climb out of that hole, so he just wondered around, AND the rats were surrounding the hole because of the doggy treats , & Richie was scared of rats, didn't you see all the blood he had when Daniel fished him out of the hole?

Also Daniel & Valeria were a metaphor on loving a person for who they were, Valeria was obviously never going to model again, & Daniel had a choice to stay with her or not, & he did, therefore, if anything, he loves her more than he did before.

Life does suck dude, I hate movies like The Notebook, where there's happy endings, & gives people false hope, Amores Perro's means "Love is a B!+ch" Witch it is, your always going to want more in life, because a "Happy" ending never comes in the middle of the story.

HOW IS THIS OVERRATED?!? Overrated would mean that this film would have like 10 Sequels, or it would have been mentioned in TV episodes like Family or Conan. Overrated would mean that this film would have Merchandise, like T-shirts, or Action figures, if anything this movie should be in the top 50

Was a major bright red banner metaphor.Valeria had a superficial love for her dog and for David and David had a superficial love for her. They were both superficial people, and worse, one sold her own body for money and the other was the seller of her body. The car accident shattered her leg which shattered her superficial coddling of her dog, her superficial love for David, her superficiality in general, and tested David's love for her (him leaving his wife and children was not proof that he really loved Valeria). Richie sinking under the grimy blackened rat-infested foundations of her apartment floor was a metaphor for the inner journey Valeria and David underwent when her physical dehabilitation tested their love. Richie lost and whimpering in darkness and offering willowy barks of hope echoed Valeria and David lost and whimpering internally as they searched deep within their grimy superficial selves to figure out how they really felt about each other and to learn what love and responsibility really meant.The floorboards of their relationship were smashed up and the dog's whimpers of longing and hope were their own whimpers of longing and hope. And at the end, the three of them made it out of the unknown dark, alive.

But if they had cut all that waste of time out it would only have been two hours long, and the director needed to make it two and a half hours so we could all see how Tarantinoesque he is.

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I really liked this movie, and i even think that their story was my favorite (valeria and daniel. But i agree with you in the hole in the floor part. I thought they would get it fixed, especially after her accident. And Valeria could have been playing with the dog somewhere else in the house and not literally in front of the hole. And when the dog is trapped i don't get why they wouldn't pay someone. I'm sure it wasn't their best moment but i guess she still had some savings and he had a good job. But a few days passed. That part frustrated me and i felt sad about the poor dog. At least I am glad he got out alive. Despite all that like i said, it was my favorite story. I would've loved to see what happened with them after the last incident.

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"I hate you, I hate us both"

I read that some bits were based on true stories, including this piece about Richie.

The story in which a model's lapdog is lost under her floorboards is also based on fact. "But in real life it ended when they noticed a bad smell from under the floor."

I enjoyed the movie but not the Richie subplot for the reasons given. I also hated the fact that they left a bunch of chocolates for Richie. For those that don't know, chocolate is poisonous to dogs. As soon as they put it down, I assumed the end of the Richie subplot would be finding him dead next to a half-eaten plate.