A film of surprising depth and frankness, this is no Mexican soap opera. The film is told in chapters, one about each major character. They all come from the same neighborhood and their lives intertwine. For the most part the stories wind up in disappointment, with few moments of sweetness, and some real tragedies. It's not quite a slice of life, but compares very favorably to the similar American film Short Cuts by Robert Altman. Without going into too much detail, it follows a late mid-life 'crisis' of a bar owner named Rutilio who finally allows his inner yearnings to surface, almost at the cost of his family. The second chapter follows Alma (Salma Hayek, the only recognizable name from the cast) as a lovely ghetto girl who is torn by the absence of her fiance who is in America and the desires, needs and temptations of being young, lovely, and inexperienced. The third chapter is about Susanna, the local landlord, middle-aged, homely, and never-been-loved and the trials she puts herself through after a fateful tarot-card reading predicting the imminent appearance of a man in her life. The last chapter, the Return, ties all the strings together as best they can be, because this is life and the strings simply don't tie together that well.
I didn't expect a Mexican film of this frankness - not just sex, but characters having real conversations, smoking grass, getting mixed up in an underworld with a sheen of decency and the expected rotten core - all rotating around the table in the neighborhood bar where the men play dominoes. These comments may not have convinced you to see this movie, but if you did see and liked Short Cuts then I highly recommend this film. And if Short Cuts is gobbledegook to you then I recommend both. Nine out of Ten.
