Amar te duele (2002) User Reviews (22)

Love hurts

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 12 April 2005]

"Amar te Duele", as well as some recent films from Mexico, introduces international audiences into an inside look of the society south of the border. Director Eduardo Sarinana clearly demonstrates he is an original. In many ways this movie presents the ugly side of discrimination in that country. In a way, the screen play, by Carolina Rivera, capitalizes in a variation of the Romeo and Juliet story, as it presents us with a couple of teen agers in love, each one coming from different worlds.

Ulises, the graffiti artist and comic book writer, is a young man with a lot of talent. His only problem is being poor and coming from the type of family the upper classes of Mexico look down upon because of being 'brown' instead as pure white. Ulises doesn't have anything to be ashamed of; he comes from a loving home where both parents work in their modest business.

Enter the lovely Renata. She is a girl of privilege. We see her and her friends roaming the local mall doing what that type of girl with money and credit cards take for granted. On a dare, she goes to Ulises, who is following her and kisses him, thus setting things in motion for the tragedy that will follow.

Mr. Sarinana is an innovative director. He incorporates some of the popular culture into the film. In a great sequence, we are shown, in split screens and in comic book fashion different aspects of what Ulises has been doing, complete with captions. It is a brilliant departure for traditional Mexican film making. The use of color and black and white is quite remarkable, as it adds another layer to the texture of the finished product.

Unfortunately, the story is doomed from the start. We know how things work and realize there could be no justice, or mercy, for Ulises. For that matter, Renata will not be able to find happiness because in her world, certain things can't be tolerated.

The director gets good performances of his young cast. Luis Fernando Pena and Martha Higareda, as Ulises and Renata, are appealing as the young lovers. Mr. Sarinana also gets great performances of the large ensemble cast.

"Amar te Duele" is worth a look to acquaint yourself with a fine film maker to be reckoned with.

Mexico City teen drama

[RanchoTuVu · 8/10 · 16 April 2004]

Poor (as in no money) Ulises hangs out with his buddies, skates (skateboards), and makes murals using spray paint on available walls. He works with his father selling stuff at an open air market, and attends high school. One day he makes eye contact with Renata, a girl from an upper class family, while at a trendy mall. They follow each other around, and she kisses him. Thus begins this movie. Their unlikely romance blossoms amidst the background of their social differences, and is doomed from the start. The differing social worlds of the two lovers clash in a memorable fight scene outside Renata's private high school. Renata's sister is a closet alcoholic, her ex-boyfriend is bitter and jealous about losing her to Ulises, and is decisive in the film's ending. The Mexico City locales and musical soundtrack are terrific.

My Opinion on Amar Te Duele

[christymae1128 · 8/10 · 14 January 2007]

This movie includes a little bit of everything you look for in a movie: love, laughter, hate, tragedy. What makes this story so beautiful is the puppy love between the protagonists Renata and Ulises. While watching the movie, you want to scream at the parents and Renata's sister for being so ignorant and stuck up. I do recommend this movie for Romeo and Juliet movie lovers- you know, the whole "we belong with each other no matter what the world says" movie. I think Martha Higadera and Luis Fernando Pena do a realistic job making us believe that they are head over heels in love. I should say that the way they met is also very realistic. I just wish that money wouldn't dictate whom we can and cannot love, ya know? -christian

Great criticism, poor love story

[bucalicious · 24 February 2003]

This is the latest movie of the new Mexican film generation. It is a love story between two social classes. While the girl is rich and lives in a bubble, the guy is poor and has a harsh life. As many of the most recent Mexican movies, this movie incorporates a strong sense of humor. This humor may be seen as rudely presented, but it makes you laugh anyway. The story is easy going and you´ll not be bored during it, in fact despite of the cliche, you´ll be wishing for the lovers to get together in the end. The love story is poor. It´s a contemporary version of Romeo and Juliet. However, what makes this movie worthwile is the way it presents you with clasism in Mexico. Both, rich and poor, hate each other. In a part of the movie, the rich guy takes on the poor guy sort of teaching him a lesson. However, later, ther poor guys take revenge in a much stronger way. It also shows how the majority, although being poor, are more powerful that any minority, despite how many money they have. I give this film 3 stars.. worth watching for the kicks.

Oh come on! this movie is anti-reality. It's more clichèd than anything.

[insomniac_rod · 7/10 · 17 December 2006]

An objective review: "Amar Te Duele" makes me really mad. I'm from Mèxico and believe me, these kind of fairy tales NEVER happen here. Never.

Renata is a high class girl with a "cool" and fresh attitude towards everything. She has everything necessary to succeed in Mexican discriminatory society: money, a perfect body, a beautiful face, goes to a private school, etc. Although having a lot of money and friends just like her she supposedly falls in love with a lower class boy with a horrible attitude, criminal background, horrible clothes, and some awful friends. That will never happen here people! If you are like Ulises don't expect to meet a girl like her unless she goes to the same school where you study, or if you meet a girl like her in a private club. Not to mention that Renata is kind of a slut because she has a boyfriend when she starts going out with Ulises.

Suddenly Renata kisses him as part of a bet she had with her friend and sister. Therefore, a love story begins. A love story with pink overtones. Renata and Ulises live a series only seen in movies!

So please, watch only "Amar Te Duele" only as what it is : a fictional romantic comedy.

Martha Higareda delivers a fun, sexy performance. She's really fresh and cute. Super sexy body and a beautiful face. TOo bad her character is too damn clichèd. But she does what she has to do; no wonder why she's a favorite among young people. Too bad that she performed in two gratuitous nudity scenes. Why would she play with her breasts? that scene was OBVIOUSLY intended to go for a male audience who would buy or watch the movie in theaters. Too bad Martha was part of a non-artistic scene and now she isn't considered for her acting skills but for her slutty attitude and physical attributes. I really liked her.

The rest of the cast is also good. A new generation of Mexican talents. Too bad that they pick horrible roles like "Amar Te Duele". Certainly not a terrible movie, but obviously an attempt to storm the box office and spawn a new generation of Mexican romantic comedies that every time look more and more like in the USA.

This does not happen in Mexican society! If you want to watch a movie that is close to Mèxico's reality watch Valentin Trujillo's "El Perro Callejero". Now, that's reality.

Bad movie, good actress

[villabyte · 6/10 · 12 January 2003]

This is one of the worst mexican films in the last decade. The direction is afoul and the script is even worst. The changing in the photography gets you kind of dizzy and the end is so dumb, how you can miss a shot when the other guy is like two feet away from you. In my opinion it could be better if Renata were send to Canada, and Ulises and her don't see each other again in their whole life. But this movie has something that touches you and robs your hearth that is Martha Higareda, she is such a pretty girl but also a fine actress. The scene when she cries for three days its so realistic that worth the thicket.

Very Real

[chistu · 9/10 · 14 February 2009]

"Amar Te Duele" is one of my favorite films because it happens in the exact zone where I live. In the delegations of "Santa Fe", "Bosques De las Lomas", and "Interlomas" this is really happening. Upper middle class and rich class living meters away from the poor class my example is you see an enormous building and you look to the other side of the street and there are thousands of poor houses and of course they don't mix but they are all breathing the same air and the story is based in what would happen if a girl from the upper class had a boyfriend from the lower class and of course they wouldn't have a problem but everyone surrounding them including family and friends would and what happen in the movie would be really happen so what I like about it is that it could be me, my sister, my friend, anyone because its really amazing that we live in the exact same zone with the exact same places but to difference any other place in the world where it happens including cities like New York, Madrid, London or anywhere else we don't mix and this is the least fiction story that involves my life, my friends, and my family. Thats what I love about it.

Art is found also in interpretation.

[princessmajo · 10/10 · 28 March 2006]

Sure, how many times have we seen the same old Romeo and Juliet portrayal? Thousands, sure... but art is also found in interpretation. This will evoke some kind of feeling, if it doesn't then I seriously think you weren't able to appreciate it! The soundtrack is amazing, one of the best I've heard on a film so far, the script leaves a lot of room for improvement for my taste, but its somewhat compensated by the artistic risks taken by the director to highlight racial differences, conflict and equality. My only criticism is Ximena's Sariñana's acting (Renata's sister), who is a fabulous singer (proven by the soundtrack), but unfortunately a poor actress. Hats off to the character Ulises and the actor who plays him, since I think his performance was absolutely real, believable, sincere and just superb.

Standard teenage melodrama

[hgutierr · 5/10 · 13 September 2005]

It is a good idea, however the execution fails.

Sariñana copies a lot of scenes from several movies, however he doesn't seem to have a style of his own. One scene is a shameful Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet rip-off, but without Luhrmann's artistry.

So many different styles crammed into one film doesn't make any good...

Also, acting of most secondary actors is very, very flat.

Dialogues aren't that good... teenagers don't talk that way.

And there are two completely unnecessary nude scenes (not full, only from the waist up).

I consider "Amar Te Duele" as the child of a dull MTV video clip and a standard Televisa telenovela (soap opera).

Mexican Reality at its best

[rvalera · 10/10 · 17 November 2002]

This movie is like the Mexican, updated, upgraded version of Romeo and Juliet; but it is developed in today's world, with normal and very life-like situations The movie does not fall in the extremely, novelistic kind of love, but discribes true, normal-life life; it's just like THIS happens in today's Mexico, there is a HUGE gap between the rich people and the poor people in Mexico; this movie excels in showing this GAP, shows the current rascism that exists and unmasks the really dangerous people.

• I would like to appoint that the name of the movie is "Amar te duele" (love hurts you) and not "Amor que duele "Love that hurts you", please check this one out. "Amar te duele" is a word game, which is in my humble opinion, an extremely

nice addition; besides the normal translation of "Love hurts you", it also means "Loving you hurts" and "To mars it hurts", the last phrase refers to a song (which is in the movie's soundtrack) that begins saying "I will love you from here to Mars". The soundtrack is great featuring excellent latin music exponents.

I will give "Amar te duele" a 10 out of 10, two thumbs up!

Another not so good by Sarinana

[uninvited_weirdo · 5/10 · 9 January 2003]

After the really disappointing "El segundo aire" (2001), Sarinana came up with two new releases: "Ciudades oscuras" and "Amar te duele". This second was well-known and loved by many people in Mexico, although it wasn't that good... just like "El segundo aire". It's a tricky film about a rich girl that falls in love with a poor guy. No more no less. Not the best Mexican film of the year, but it is certainly better than flaws like "El crimen del Padre Amaro". One star and a half out of four.

Rebirth Of Mexican Cinema

[alex_peran · 10/10 · 10 March 2003]

A great film, as soon as I saw it it made my top 10, I see almost every mexican film that comes out, and this is close to a masterpiece, the story is a little cliche, but it has a good screenplay, and the photography is just wonderful, and includes camera effects that are new in the mexican film industry; The soundtrack also integrates perfectly to the story, and is reduced to mostly mexican artists. Possibly one of the best films of the year.

very good / muy bueno

[christina_reyna91 · 10/10 · 28 December 2004]

this movie was great i was very touched by how the boy loved this girl so much and he was not willing to give her up and she excepted him for who he was and she did not look at him by how rich he was. she discovered herself by seeing this boy it was a great movie anybody English or Spanish could understand this movie great!!!!!! this movie showed true feeling when she started to look at him she did not take him seriously he thought that she was a young beautiful girl he would draw pictures of her and spray paint he name on walls to show her how much he loved her near the end it got very intament she showed her love to him a lot and was very comfortable

Enjoyed when I was teen, but now it's lame

[davidryv · 4/10 · 2 September 2020]

I have to say that when I was 15 I enjoyed a lot , it had the music I used to listen to (Zoé, Natalia Lafourcade, etc..) , I liked the love story , and felt connected, it was amazing for me.

However, after some time, and after re-watched, some things are lame. the pos-editing is trash ( that fast forward - slow motion , effect is abused ) , the audio mixing it's pure trash, sometimes the music was very loud, some sounds didn't mix with the rest of the scene. Acting was bad, a lot of scenes feels fake, with lack of sentiment or emotions. The background of the story is on one premise burned as hell, "the poor guy that fall in love with a wealthy one".

At the end I just had nostalgia for the film , remember me when I was in high school , and that enjoyed.

Great Movie

[juana_macias · 10/10 · 15 June 2004]

So it's a Romeo and Juliet type movie only it has to do with class differences and color In Mexico, there is much racism and hate against dark and poor people but these two young lovers do not care. They fight against all odds to continue their relationship but this all ends in tragedy. Cute guys! Great actors and lots of fun too! Most of the youth in this movie began acting careers as children. I recommend this movie as well as others like Sexo Pudor y Lagrimas, Amores Perros and Ladies Night although this last one is more like a "chick flick" because there are male strippers, a bachelorette party, many guys and lots of fun! The others are great though!

NONA

Boring

[songey2002 · 1/10 · 8 October 2007]

I watched meanwhile returning from a night out - a bit drunk to be honest-, and found at the beginning amusing it's use of pyrotechnic camera tricks at first, but in a few minutes becomes just plain annoying replacing ideas and emotions with cheap gimmicks, besides the script reeks stupidity and Mexican high-class prejudices ( especially in the central characters.

The seduction process it's just plain nonexistent and boring at best, the actor portraying Ulises has really nothing special in him, he's neither minimally good-looking, buoyant, charismatic or edgy he's just plain "cute" and to be honest that sucks in & out the screen, the same goes for the leading lady., she's pretty, but any person who has been in the mall, depicted in the movie knows that more dashing girls can be found there.

The "romantic" parts have as much emotion as an infomercial, besides the girl would end death, they could have easily break up, and Ulises end up lamenting her abandoning, just by being boring.

The "villains" are all flat images, saying and doing supposedly threatening things, but end up just padding the film.

And as for the director's daughter, who told her she has screen presence?, the only thing she does in the film, in her film career is being an insipidly annoying spoiled girl, the scene in which she vomits summarizes his presence in Mexican cinema very well...

Mexican Romeo and Juliet

[princebansal1982 · 2/10 · 18 May 2011]

Amar te duele is a Mexican romeo and juliet, except that every character is over the top and cartoonish. I don't think the director heard of subtlety before. Early on every body falls in their given roles. We are quickly told who are the bad guys we are supposed to hate, and who are good guys we are supposed to like.

This movie which is already bad is made worse by cheap tricks. It is as if it is directed as a college project and the director is trying to show off, by randomly changing between black and white and color, using colored filters and even using low resolution cameras. Some times tricks like this can be really good, but for this you have to have a very good and different movie as a backbone so the people don't reject these effects as gimmicks.

You have better things to do with your life then spend it watching this clunker.

Crap of the worst kind.

[REVEREND_DOCTOR_LUV · 9 January 2003]

Does anyone actually WATCH this thing?, wells, Fernando Sariñana did something that was thought to be utterly impossible, he released two movies the same year in a motion picture industry that has been in crisis for most of its lifespan, but, once you see either one of them (the other release being "Ciudades Oscuras") you can easily get to the conclusion that Sariñana should have saved the problem........ Regarding "Amar te duele", it´s suposed to be a "urban" take on "Romeo and Juliet" on Mexico in the shopping mall arena. Think of it as the worst parts of "Mallrats" crossed with any mexican soap opera, it has the regular pack of stereotyped characters, lousy class-z acting, the directing work is practically non-existent, it shifts (inexplicable) from color to black and white (maybe in some sort of private homage to euro-cinema or God Knows why) there are some nude breast scenes which add absolutely nothing to the "story", character development (also something absent from the film) a retarded brother (which tries in a lame fashion to show us what a good brother the lead character is) some incredibly cheesy dialogue and a predictable death scene. As mentioned above, it is suposed to be based in "Romeo and Juliet" but can be easily seen that it was in de Bar Lhuzman version rather than Shakespeare. Mexican cinema is said to be in a rebirth process and the (mexican) media is making quite a hype. Watching this kind of movies really makes you wonder why the hell they are saying that!. Conclusion: AVOID! zero stars out of 5

Maybe not "my kind" of movie.

[CuartoOscuroComMx · 5/10 · 28 November 2002]

In my humble opinion this movie tries to be different from the rest of Mexican films, but falls in too many clichés. AMAR·TE·DUELE is a little too "urban" for me, is the typical teenage mexican movie where popular music comes up and "mexican" language rules. I'm from Mexico, i speak exactly like that, but for me it's a formula that has been overused in mexican cinematography in recent years.

I'm really tired of watching this kind of "urban" Mexican movies, everyone is the same. I'm from Mexico and would really love to watch a mexican film that shows a different world. Well... i think there's people who like watching movies where the reality is shown and some other people (like me) wanna see a different movie, a movie that carries you out of the regular world for at least 2 hours... that's movies about, isn't it?

It is not a bad movie, simply it's not MY KIND of movie. Many of my friends loved this picture. Try it.

Very Bad One..

[Hycke · 3 March 2003]

Compared to "Ciudades Oscuras" (wich came out the same year) the movie is very bad, yes, it's a new story in Mexican Cinema of the New Millenium, still it's a very used issue, the social difference between lovers. But let's forget the plot, and go to the direction, why the hell this guy used so many effects !!, I mean, it's good to stablish a point of view with experimental shots, but this guy totally obsesed with visual effects, i know we should blame photography director, but HEY! the director is the one with the vision ! 2 out of 5. The actress is the only good thing in the movie. =))

Love Hurts? No, Watching It Hurts

[Sonny_Darko · 19 September 2009]

OK, so a lot of people have been claiming that this film is either trash or a great movie. Truth is, it's neither. It's basically a typical Mexican soap opera with a tragic twist at the ending, that was more predictable than anything. It could have been much better except it fell in a copy of a soap opera theme that has been done over 100,000 times in Mexico and a rip off of Baz Lurhmanns vision of Romeo and Juliet.

Two teens, one poor and the other rich, fall in love and must fight against their social classes in order to be together. They meet at a mall and after a bet that Renata (girl) makes with her friends, that she wont kiss a poor guy (Ulises), she does and thanks to that kiss, they fall in love. This was an OK idea to incorporate, what was a bad one, was the scenes that followed that kiss. For starters, we see Ulises following her around throughout the whole mall, and when he approaches her, what does he do? Talk to her? No, he STARES at her. Right in front of her face, just stares. Like a creepy idiot that doesn't know what to do, yet she finds this attractive. Here, they tried to pull off what Lurhmann did in the fish tank scene, even having both Ulises and Renata look at each other through a glass window. There is only one major problem with this. The only reason why Romeo did not talk to Juliet in that scene was because there was a transparent WALL in between them. Anyways, this romance causes a lot of problems for both teens, mainly being the one that there's absolutely no chemistry in between both actors. There's two nude scenes, one is acceptable, the other really isn't, which one could easily tell they were inserted to the film for the sole reason of keeping the male audience entertained, because the love story is actually pretty lame.

One of the things that really helps this film is the acting of the main characters. I really liked the directors daughter's performance, because believe it or not, 98% of the high class and high class wannabe's actually do act like that (well, maybe except for the part of the alcoholism). Most of the movie falls in cliché, but the humor does save it every now and then. If you really like the cheesy love films, then this is for you. If you're looking for the next The Notebook, I would recommend you go look somewhere else. While yes, everyone knows that this is another version of Romeo and Juliet, not everyone knows that its a version of Baz Lurhmanns 1996 version. Even the cover art really gives it away, with that sacred heart look a like heart that completely rips off Lurhmanns movie art.

Honest commercial film

[posmodern2000 · 21 February 2005]

Note: I sent a protest to the board of Col Needham, owner of IMDb, because this program presents original words in Spanish like spellings mistakes.

Compared with the other films of director Sariñana, very successful in commercial terms but nothing more than annoying trash, like "Todo el Poder" and "El Segundo Aire" this one it's a masterpiece ("Ciudades Oscuras" don't count because it's an attempt to do an "art film" to be taken by the critic like a "serious artist", doing a personal work after doing good box office, just like Spielberg did "Schindler's List" after "Jurassic Park").

A poor boy and a rich girl fall in love and must fight against the world for their love. She dies. The plot itself is anything but original and the end it's very predictable and even unbelievable, because the rich first boyfriend (some kind of Billy Zane in "Titanic") shoots her by mistake trying to kill or hurt the poor boy, after showing in another scene he have good aim.

The important thing with this film it's the recognition in a Mexican commercial film of the great racism and social and economical gap in Mexico. In that sense it's even superior to the overrated "Amores Perros", a good film but with some false notes (no way a supermarket in Mexico employs someone with the look of Gael García's brother in the film).

That racism in Mexico it's very different of the racism in USA before the civil rights movement. Because it's the racism of the minority against the majority. Sounds strange I know. After the Conquest of Mexico, with the destruction of the most of the culture of the Indian people (what you can see in The "Museo Nacional of Antropología" it's very little compared with all things destroyed) the Spaniards ruled the country, but made a division between Spaniards born in Spain and born in Mexico, the last were considered second class white people. So they developed the notion of a patriotism and lead the revolt against those born in Spain. I recommend the book "The First America : The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots and the Liberal State 1492-1866" by Dr. David A. Brading, of Cambridge University, if you want to know more.

So creole (criollos) became the new ruling class and race till today. The Mexican television presents as the model of beauty almost only white people (9% of population) in a country of half-breeds (60%) and indigenous (30%) to sustain this situation. In high paid jobs like public relations, employers demand good bearing but this means white skin because of the model imposed by television. You can read more in the biographical book about Mexican TV tycoon Emilio Azcarraga by Claudia Fernandez and Andrew Paxman (I can't write the title because like I said this program reject it like a spelling mistake). Even white Mexican like director Sariñana understand this situation it's unjust and only make Mexico a weak country with the division between first and second class Mexican based in the lighter or darker color of their skin. Some Mexican poster even writes the better could be Renata in Canada and never see again Ulises, that's the size of racism and class division in Mexico.

As the trivia informs, the line of the cameo of the director is "Pinches beep". "Naco" it's the greatest racial and social slur in Mexico with "indio" (indian). *beep* - the "N" word- can be an equivalent. It means someone dark-skinned,vulgar, stupid, corrupt...and poor. Some white high class people in Mexico are corrupt but they pretend their corruption is the corruption of "decent people".

The place of the story it's Santa Fe. A place full of poor houses. That was before the government give away some grounds there to Universidad Iberoamericana, a Jesuits private university for rich people. Now the price of the same ground are very expensive.

The film is full of class and racial slurs and street lingo and that helps to avoid melodramatic tone and give a more realistic impression. What if his mouth stinks with the smell of s u a d e r o' s tacos? la Güera (the Blond) says to Renata when they bet if Renata can kiss the "naco". The "tacos of s u a d e r o" are a very cheap greasy food sold in almost any corner of Mexico City. Nothing to do with healthy light food rich people eats (well, some really like street tacos but not gonna accept it in public).

So the film makes an important statement but falls with a poor end. The rich girl must die to give the "tragic" tone to the love story. But in the context of real Mexican society it's the conformist end.

The work of Luis Fernando Peña are remarkable giving Ulises the dignity many poor people have in Mexico, not accepting to be a kept man of the rich girl or accepting the stolen things from his friends. Martha Higareda are very natural in her debut. She's very pretty but very expressive unlike many pretty young actresses in Mexico.

Fernando Sariñana does an honest commercial film, and in some moments even have inspiration like when Renata and Ulises appear like the characters of a comic, the way of expression for Ulises. Even his nepotist insistence of casting his daughter, Ximena Sariñana,in his films works here. She's really annoying like the racist, alcoholic and stupid sister of Renata and does some musical work here. But she have the same acting talent and charisma of Sophia Coppola.