Lawrence.com

Alejandro Gonz�lez I��rritu's "Amores Perros (Love's a Bitch)" is certainly edgy and provocative. The violence in this Mexican film, which was that country's Best Foreign Film nominee at the Oscars this year, pushes the limits of audience endurance. At some moments, one begins to wonder if I��rritu might be more at home in a padded cell than behind a camera. The scenes of simulated gore are especially hard to watch because they involve the abuse of dogs. Somehow viewing the mistreatment of pooches seems even more vile than watching a human being killed.

Fortunately, "Amores Perros" has more than cheap shock value on its agenda. Novelist Guillermo Arriaga's script, while borrowing from "Pulp Fiction," has plenty of engaging surprises of its own. He and I��rritu also prove to be versatile storytellers. In a single film, they balance stories and moods as diverse as canine breeds.

Arriaga and I��rritu don't waste any time setting things up. "Amores Perros" begins with a furious chase through the streets of Mexico City. Two men are hurriedly trying to escape the clutches of a gunmen in a truck. There is a bloody body in the back. After a few quick cuts, it turns out to be not a person but a wounded dog. At the height of the chase, the car slams into another vehicle, injuring its driver and catching the eye of an eccentric old man.

As the film progresses, we discover that all of these individuals have interrelated stories. The first, "Octavio and Susana" deals with a shiftless adolescent named Octavio (Gael Garc�a Bernal). His weak prospects force him to live with his mother, his department store clerk brother Ramiro (Marco Perez) and his pregnant sister-in-law Susana (Vanessa Bauche). Octavio pines for Susana and believes he must rescue her because Ramiro beats her, philanders and supplements his income with armed robberies.

When the family dog Cofi unexpectedly kills a mutt that had previously been an undefeated champion in local dogfights, Octavio starts making enough dough to rival his brother and possibly run off with Susana. During this segment, I��rritu seems to take sadistic glee as the dogs go after each other. What keeps things from descending into sadism is the quirkiness of the two lovers. Their ups and downs are unpredictable, and Arriaga thankfully avoids putting in tidy solutions.

In the second segment "Daniel and Valeria", Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero), a wealthy publisher has just divorced his wife and hooked up with a model named Valeria (Spanish actress Goya Toledo). He's even bought her an apartment of her own overlooking a giant advertising banner in which she appears. The two seem briefly giddy but a little bothered by a hole in the floor where the footsteps of rats can be heard. Their bliss soon ends when she almost loses her leg in a car wreck. Stuck in a wheelchair all day while Daniel works in the office, she can't work and her old employers abandon her. Her only friend in the world is her little dog. Later, even he is lost when he falls down the hole in the floor.

Or is he? His yelps can be heard beneath the floor, along with the eerie footsteps of rats. Arriaga and I��rritu demonstrate considerably more subtlety with this portion of the flick, replacing the gore with a sort of quiet, satanic laughter. Still, they avoid taking a "serves-you-right" attitude with the characters, making them remarkably sympathetic. These two may not have acted properly, but their misfortune still is compelling. I��rritu also takes some clever potshots at the shallowness of celebrity culture.

The film concludes with "El Chivo and Maru," a segment that's a tad overlong. Nonetheless, it's fascinating because it features a protagonist who can be found nowhere in films north of the border. El Chivo (veteran Mexican actor Emilio Echevarria) looks like a harmless, scraggly old man who wanders the streets of Mexico City collecting stray dogs and nursing some back to health. It proves to be a terrific cover for his real job as a hit man. A former college professor who became a guerilla, El Chivo has grown weary following his daughter from afar. His past and current activities are too shameful, preventing him from openly facing her. He finally decides to do something about his plight when he begins to question his latest assignment. A young man has just hired the old assassin to kill his own brother, but El Chivo decides it's time to teach the fellow a lesson in family relations.

In addition, to navigating three complicated, but intriguing stories, I��rritu, a former D.J., assembles a lively soundtrack featuring everything from snappy Mexican tunes to The Hollies' classic "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress, which is used to creepy effect in El Chivo's ramshackle residence. When the film is complete, it's easy to forgive I��rritu 's excesses, but one might hesitate to share meat dishes with him.