Escobar: la traición

Loving Pablo has certainly moments of guilty pleasure but leaves an empty feeling when reaching the end. This is the story of the rise and fall of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. The very clever pairing of Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz as the strongly larger-than-life couple gave this production a shot at the international box office before it will go to smaller screens. Very much action-packed, Loving Pablo marks a turn towards the mainstream for Fernando Leon de Aranoa, the Spanish writer-director best known for social and political dramas. What ends up holding the film down to its level of superficial glitz is being adapted from Vallejo's novel/memoir Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar. The story is told almost on that basis and that's the min limit.

This is a simple biography movie about "Escobar" from the viewpoint of "Virginia Vallejo" ,a colombian journalist who had a relationship with "Escobar" in 80's till his death, so the movie shows the last 10 to 15 years in "Escobar's" life, which is good and bad in the same time.

It's good that it shows a specific situations related to the timeline of the story without getting into details , and it goes directly into the actions of drug trafficking. But you may find it bad as it's not a full documentary about the life of "Escobar", so you may have questions not getting answered about the start of his business and his childhood or his life before the drug business.

I found the movie quite enjoyable with that accent,However there is some scenes with full spanish dialogue which is not subtitled so it can be annoying.

The script is acceptable, the directing is good in addition to the photography, the acting of "Javier Bardem" is the best and watching him with his face reactions and his daily splendour lifestyle as "Escobar" is quite enjoyable, you may feel that "Penélope Cruz" doesn't really act and she is showing her real personality but i can't really decide if this is a good or bad thing.

The movie follow a single timeline and it focus about how "Escobar" deal with his family, friends, business and women. The adoption of his home, prison, friends, family and death is really impressive, and you can depend on it if you want to know the real lifestyle of "Escobar".

You can watch "American Made" if you want to see American point of view of "Escobar" and some of his actions.

Finally, it's a good biography movie that lacks a real plot, but this didn't prevent it to be an enjoyable movie that you may hardly feel bored watching it.

Why anyone (the director?) made Spanish actors speak bad English in a story which is supposed to take place in a Spanish speaking country with Spanish speaking characters is a mysterious to me. It makes the otherwise well intended film unnatural and completely unbelievable, in my mind it turns the film into a B-movie, frankly unbearable to watch. What a waste of good actors! In an age when even HBO has understood that subtitles are indispensable when you want to make your story to be authentic and credible, I think that decision is the worst flaw of the film.

This film tells the life of Pablo Escobar and his mistress Virginia.

The story is captivating because it is intense and suspenseful. There is a constant threat of danger to all the characters involved. Many people lose their lives, yet fortunately the film is not too graphically gory. I feel sorry for the characters, and what happened to them.

The film should have been in Spanish with subtitles. It was impossible to follow the dialogue.