Its exploration of the struggle between the flesh and the spirit every priest faces is certainly timely. But this obvious, heavy-handed melodrama, which relies on one hackneyed plot twist too many, could have used a little more finesse.

| Aug 24, 2023

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 30, 2006

| Original Score: C- | Aug 7, 2004

While the issues the film raises are acutely topical, Carrera seems bent on carrying on a crusade rather than creating a realistic drama.

| Feb 16, 2004

Apesar das inmeras liberdades tomadas com o texto de Ea de Queiroz, o filme funciona maravilhosamente bem com seus personagens tridimensionais e questionamentos sobre a Igreja.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 25, 2003

The drama was so uninspiring that even a story immersed in love, lust, and sin couldn't keep my attention.

| Original Score: C- | Jun 27, 2003

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 10, 2003

For all its oddities and deliberate controversy, Padre Amaro is at bottom a very melodramatic soap opera. It's not a bad one, but it's pretty much 99 and 44/100ths pure.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 16, 2003

A muckraking tale of priestly corruption, hypocrisy and illicit love that smothers its reformist protest beneath a sweaty cassock of sexual soap opera and overheated religious symbolism...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 6, 2003

One of the most relentlessly eye-opening dramas of the year.

| Mar 4, 2003

Like a south-of-the-border Melrose Place.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 27, 2003

Nothing more than a mediocre trifle.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 15, 2003

For all of the criticisms of the Church in El Crimen del Padre Amaro, Carrera is quick to defend the basic humanity of his characters.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 14, 2003

Cut through the layers of soap-opera emotion and you find a scathing portrayal of a powerful entity strangling the life out of the people who want to believe in it the most.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 14, 2003

It's not hard to see why Mexican audiences are lapping this up.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 14, 2003

Drama of temptation, salvation and good intentions is a thoughtful examination of faith, love ... and power.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 11, 2003

El Crimen Del Padre Amaro would likely be most effective if used as a tool to rally anti-Catholic protestors.

| Feb 10, 2003

This rather unfocused, all-over-the-map movie would be a lot better if it pared down its plots and characters to a few rather than dozens... or if it were subtler... or if it had a sense of humor.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 7, 2003

Bernal ... gives an ambiguous performance; he's a lightweight actor, but that's a positive quality when portraying a man on whom nothing leaves a permanent mark.

| Feb 7, 2003

The film is based on an 1875 novel but couldn't be more timely .

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 31, 2003