This may be the most foreign DVD I have ever used. The menu is in Spanish; you have to either know some already or recognize cognates to find the subtitles, which contain a handful of errors. The extras offer no subtitles at all. But I'm something of a Hispanophile, so I felt a bit drawn to the movie.
Set in a Mexico City slum (the title means "We the poor," after all), the story follows quite a few characters, but mostly a lady's-man carpenter nicknamed Pepe el Toro and his family. They include a preteen called Chachita, who has to adopt an unusual amount of responsibility in her mother's longtime absence; Pepe's quadruplegic mother; and Yolanda, diagnosed with consumption, who doesn't live with Pepe but shows up pretty often. Things get much worse for the already poor heroes before they get better, usually thanks to scumbags rich or poor. Don't expect much in the way of justice.
Yeah, it's a melodrama along the lines of a telenovela. I feel especially sorry for Chachita, who keeps crying over lost or inadequate connections with one family member or another. It's partly Pepe's fault for keeping her in the dark about certain matters, which you might or might not guess before their revelation. No wonder rumors spread that he killed her mother.
If there's one character to pity even more, it's Pepe's mother. At least Jean-Dominique Bauby in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly had a full communication system set up. This old lady does a better job of conveying emotions, but what good is that when no one can guess what has her stressed?
Fortunately, it's not 100% drama. I found myself amused at times, especially by drunks. Since the prologue mentioned puns as a coping mechanism, there must be a lot more humor that went over my head. Also, characters sing enough songs that I'd nominate "musical" as a second genre.
Perhaps it's a sign of my growth in cynicism that I found the story mostly credible -- except for the resolution toward a fairly happy ending. I'm pretty sure Pepe's method wouldn't work in RL.
I'd say the best thing about the movie, with the possible exception of the acting, is its cinematography. The aging and no-doubt cheapness of the audiovisuals do not undermine the techniques, which could rival some big names of the time.
Nlp is the first and apparently most popular entry in a trilogy. I can see why, but I'm opting out of later installments. There's only so much of this material I can take, which is why I split the viewing over two nights.
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