Escobar

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.

Sadly I missed a lot of what was said because Javier Bardem just mumbles his way through the whole thing.

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.

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

If you have watched Narcos, this film is going to be like a brief summary for you. The plot is based on the book "Loving Pablo, hating Escobar" written by Virginia Vallejo. According to her point of view, she gives her version of Escobar's story and his crimes. Bardem and Cruz give an extraordinary performance in this film, Bardem looks like the real Pablo. For this reason, I agree with the other users who are saying that the film would have been better in Spanish (like Narcos). Apart from that, I recommend this film if you are interested in Escobar's story.