First the context: there is currently an small boom of a cult to the "Santa Muerte" (Saint Lady Death) in Mexico which obviously is grabbing the attention of many people in the country. People in the Catholic community in Mexico has derided this cult in many different ways going as far as equating it with Satanism, this is important because the movie has clearly this bias.
The film presents three different histories whose only connection is the involvement of the Saint Lady Death as an object of cult, although the film mixes characters of the three different histories in the same shot, the histories do not touch each other (which makes these gimmicky shots frankly unnecessary, no Amores Perros here I'm afraid). Needless to say, this being a propagandistic film, the Saint Lady Death cult is portrayed as something negative, the characters rejecting it having happy endings, the ones that don't suffering as a consequence.
The biggest history of the three follows the troubles of a little girl who gets cancer and is declared terminally ill. The parents in desperation try every remedy under the Sun until the mother in a fortuitous way finds the cult and this seems to cure her daughter. As the family pleases or displeases the Saint Lady Death the health of the girl takes turns for the better or for the worse accordingly (the poor doctor treating her I am sure got fed up with so many miraculous changes), until finally a battle of sorts between good and evil takes place. To say the ending is corny and kitsch is an understatement, this is the god of the 10 commandments done without filmaking craftsmanship.
The second history shows the problems of a guy that losses his job and his luck goes from bad to worse until he starts worshipping the Saint Lady Death, similarly his luck changes in accordance to how well he follows the wishes of Lady Death.
The third history, almost incidental, shows how a woman betrays her best friend with the help of the Lady Death.
I had two big problems with this movie. First the propagandistic tone of the movie. There are several points in the main history in which the characters rant on and on about "Jesus Christ the true saviour", but this is not done with the intention of advancing the plot of the movie but to moralise and preach to the movie goers, the only way I can qualify this is as propaganda and I , as a non Christian, felt quite uncomfortable initially, but they go so much about this that it becomes a self parody.
The second problem I have is the bad acting. I am sorry to say but the acting is as wooden as it can get, perhaps the actors involved have worked mostly on TV ( telenovelas perhaps?) where quantity counts more than quality, this shows and badly. Perhaps the best actor in all the movie was the little girl, maybe because she does not have all the hangs on of working for TV soap operas.
A forgettable movie, if anything an example of how not to do a proselytising film.
The film presents three different histories whose only connection is the involvement of the Saint Lady Death as an object of cult, although the film mixes characters of the three different histories in the same shot, the histories do not touch each other (which makes these gimmicky shots frankly unnecessary, no Amores Perros here I'm afraid). Needless to say, this being a propagandistic film, the Saint Lady Death cult is portrayed as something negative, the characters rejecting it having happy endings, the ones that don't suffering as a consequence.
The biggest history of the three follows the troubles of a little girl who gets cancer and is declared terminally ill. The parents in desperation try every remedy under the Sun until the mother in a fortuitous way finds the cult and this seems to cure her daughter. As the family pleases or displeases the Saint Lady Death the health of the girl takes turns for the better or for the worse accordingly (the poor doctor treating her I am sure got fed up with so many miraculous changes), until finally a battle of sorts between good and evil takes place. To say the ending is corny and kitsch is an understatement, this is the god of the 10 commandments done without filmaking craftsmanship.
The second history shows the problems of a guy that losses his job and his luck goes from bad to worse until he starts worshipping the Saint Lady Death, similarly his luck changes in accordance to how well he follows the wishes of Lady Death.
The third history, almost incidental, shows how a woman betrays her best friend with the help of the Lady Death.
I had two big problems with this movie. First the propagandistic tone of the movie. There are several points in the main history in which the characters rant on and on about "Jesus Christ the true saviour", but this is not done with the intention of advancing the plot of the movie but to moralise and preach to the movie goers, the only way I can qualify this is as propaganda and I , as a non Christian, felt quite uncomfortable initially, but they go so much about this that it becomes a self parody.
The second problem I have is the bad acting. I am sorry to say but the acting is as wooden as it can get, perhaps the actors involved have worked mostly on TV ( telenovelas perhaps?) where quantity counts more than quality, this shows and badly. Perhaps the best actor in all the movie was the little girl, maybe because she does not have all the hangs on of working for TV soap operas.
A forgettable movie, if anything an example of how not to do a proselytising film.
