Directed by Carlos Carrera
Screenplay by Vicente Leñero
Novel by Eça de Queirós

Gael García Bernal .... Padre Amaro
Ana Claudia Talancón .... Amelia
Sancho Gracia .... Padre Benito
Angélica Aragón .... Sanjuanera
Luisa Huertas .... Dionisia
Ernesto Gómez Cruz .... Obispo
Gastón Melo .... Martín
Damián Alcázar .... Padre Natalio
Andrés Montiel .... Rubén
Gerardo Moscoso .... Doc
Verónica Langer .... Amparito
Pedro Armendáriz Jr. .... Presidente Municipal
Lorenzo de Rodas .... Don Paco
Roger Nevares .... Padre Galván
Fernando Becerril .... Galarza
Jorge Zárate .... Padre Mauro
Rosa María Castillo .... Chepina
Blanca Loaria .... Getsemaní
Juan Ignacio Aranda .... Chato Aguilar

Produced by
Claudia Becker .... associate producer
Daniel Birman Ripstein .... producer
Scot Evans .... associate producer
Laura Imperiale .... executive producer
Atahualpa Lichy .... associate producer
José María Morales .... co-producer
Alfredo Ripstein .... producer

Original Music by Rosino Serrano
Cinematography by Guillermo Granillo
Film Editing by Óscar Figueroa

MPAA: Rated R for sexuality, language and some disturbing images.
Runtime: 120 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM, and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG

Young Amaro, a recently ordained priest, goes to Los Reyes to help Father Benito with the duties of the temple. In the town, Father Amaro meets Amelia, a beautiful, young and sensual 16 year-old girl, with whom he'll end up falling in love. Before that, he finds out that Father Benito has a long time affair with Sanjuanera, who happens to be Amelia's mother.

Father Amaro doesn't just discover the secret love life of Father Benito, he also finds out about more serious problems: apparently Father Benito receives financial help from Chato Aguilar, the most important drug lord of the region. Also, another priest from the diocese, Father Natalio, is suspected of helping and encouraging a guerrilla. These "secrets" are revealed in a newspaper article written by Ruben, who used to be Amelia's boyfriend, and now resents Amaro. A huge scandal is unleashed. But the diocese, with Father Amaro's aid, manages to contain it, by making the newspaper publish a refusal.

Is “El Crimen del Padre Amaro” (The Crime of Father Amaro) an attack on the Catholic Church? I think it could be viewed that way. It would certainly reinforce the thinking of those who are already antipathetic to Catholicism. It needs to be noted that it is a modern retelling of an 1875 novel that comes from a time of anticlericalism and a time when the church wielded considerable power.

But “El Crimen del Padre Amaro” is not about Catholicism. Even though the Catholic Church seems to be the focus of sexual and ethical failings lately, they are not alone. Such problems have been and are still happening in all churches. In order to maintain my standing as a minister within my denomination, I am required to periodically take part in events dealing with sexual ethics. The church is learning to deal with these problems rather than covering them up, but it is a difficult process.

“El Crimen” is a melodrama, more akin to a soap opera than most American films. We watch the lust grow from scene to scene. We can tell what is going to happen before it actually happens. We know that Father Amaro will fall. But the real crime is not the sexual sin; it is the subtle seduction and corruption of a young priest.

Father Amaro is a newly ordained priest with a bright future -- possibly on the fast track up the hierarchical ladder. He arrives in a small town parish and strives to do what he has been called to the priesthood to do. He is kind, giving and forgiving. But all around him are things pulling him in other directions -- laundering drug money to build a new hospital, another priest having an affair, another priest who is living out the Gospel as seen through Liberation Theology, the bishop who makes him a middle man dealing with these problems. And in the midst of this there is a young woman who is attracted to him (and vice versa).

The sexual seduction is only a metaphor for the seduction of his soul in other ways. (In much the same way as the “seduction” in the movie “The Seduction of Joe Tynan” refers to both a sexual seduction and a seduction by political power.) This film may be set within the Catholic Church, but it could just as well have been set in a mainline denomination or an evangelical church. It even could have been set in a non-church setting. It is about the ways our goodness can be corrupted in spite of our attempts at virtue.

Certainly this has played out in literature, film and reality many times over. Sinclair Lewis’s Elmer Gantry is perhaps the stereotypical corrupt minister. He didn't start out that way. We see it happen gradually through the book. The movie “Marjoe” is an attempted exposé of hypocritical evangelists in the Holiness tradition. The current struggle within the Catholic Church dealing with a few sexual predator priests is nothing that other churches do not have to deal with as well.

But the theme of “El Crimen” isn't limited to clergy. It is something that affects us all. People do not start out corrupt. Those who created the debacle of Enron didn't set out to defraud stockholders and ruin the lives of employees. People in jobs who are just putting in their time waiting for retirement didn't start out that way. Things wear on us all. Sometimes they can destroy us before we know what has happened.

At the end of the film, we hear a bit of the liturgy being repeated, as it is each time the Mass is celebrated. We hear the confession of sin. Hearing the words, we note just how powerful the words of the liturgy can be. They may often be said out of habit, but the words themselves, when we allow them to speak to us rather that just being spoken, can both indict and heal.

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