Amar te duele

Plot synopsis:
The story begins in a suburb of Mexico City with Ulises, whose father sells clothes in the market. He is accustomed to living humbly as he belongs to a low socioeconomic class, and could be considered a "naco". Ulises' environment is one of drugs, crime and graffiti, his great passion. One day, Ulises and his friends decide to go play Qzar, a laser-gun game. In the game, Ulises encounters Francisco, an upper-class boy, who is Renata's boyfriend. The "nacos" and the upper-class kids begin to fight after Francisco insults them. The fight ends in shoves and blows that only hurt Francisco's pride.
Ulises' life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Renata, an upper-class girl, in the Santa Fe Mall. Renata is buying clothes with her friend and confidante "La Güera" and younger, alcoholic sister, Mariana; when she suddenly crosses seductive glances with Ulises through a shop window. Ulises feels strangely and deeply attracted to this girl and does not know why. Despite knowing the socioeconomic differences between them, he stalks Renata and her companions. Renata’s friend dares Renata to kiss Ulises. Ulises and Renata share a passionate kiss. After that, Ulises continues to stalk the girls in order to find out more about Renata.
Ulises encounters Francisco again while following Renata. Francisco realizes that Ulises has been following Renata and orders his bodyguards to catch him. They both recall their first encounter in Qzar, causing Francisco to assault Ulises. Renata tries to stop the fight but before she can, Ulises manages to get away and escape from the mall.
Ulises cannot stop thinking about Renata and seeks her out, knowing she always visits the mall. Ulises regains hope when he does, in fact, sees Renata again. This time, she is with her mother, so meeting her is more difficult. Ulises takes advantage of Renata’s mother’s carelessness to approach and talk to her. Renata gives her phone number to Ulises to arrange a future meeting.
A few days later, Ulises calls Renata at her house, a very large and elegant residence, telling her to turn on her radio. It is revealed that he had called a radio program and dedicated a song to her. He goes on to invite Renata on a date. Renata accepts, and "La Güera" becomes her accomplice, keeping the relationship a secret and providing an excuse for Renata's outings. The date takes place in the same place they met, Santa Fe. Multiple clandestine dates follow until they become an item. The uncomfortable unbalance between the social classes of Ulises and Renata unleashes disagreements between Mariana and her upper-class friends against Ulises' "naco" friends. Ulises and Renata are troubled by these events but decide to disregard them for the sake of continuing their relationship.
For a while, Ulises and Renata became inseparable, that they even skip school in order to spend more time together. Ulises gifts to Renata range from cute portraits of her face, handmade by Ulises by himself, to huge painted graffiti on walls made especially for her. Francisco finds out and takes revenge on Ulises out of jealousy; he sends his bodyguards to beat him up at Renata’s school, where Ulises had been leaving her after their dates. Renata cannot do anything to prevent the beating.
When Ulises shows his wounds to his mother, she advises to him to stop seeing Renata. The reaction of Ulises’ friends is more radical. They decide to go to Renata’s school to get revenge. They start beating up the rich kids in a massive and bloody confrontation. Many of the rich kids were injured, including "La Güera"'s boyfriend, who ends up in the hospital. This reaches the ears of Renata’s parents, who had forbidden her to see Ulises again. She tries to defend their relationship, but their parents do not understand her. Renata is completely isolated from the outside world, so when she finally manages to send a message to Ulises, just to say goodbye, because she has decided that is the best for both of them. Ulises thinks that she does not love him anymore, but what Renata really wants is to protect him. Ulises does not take Renata’s decision well and begins to mourn and lament. He is on the brink of madness. His friends try to comfort him, but their efforts are futile as the only thing that could bring calm to him is to be next to Renata again.
Ulises is determined to see Renata again, despite the opposition from her parents, he climbs over the roof of Renata’s house and goes to her room where their encounter culminates physically. After their meeting, they decide to get away together to Acapulco, where nothing and no one can prevent their love. Mariana overhears their plans and she calls Francisco to tell him.
Before leaving, Ulises goes home and leaves his parents most of the money he earned since he began working. The couple goes to the bus station and just when Ulises and Renata are about to leave, Francisco and Mariana appear to prevent them from escaping. Desperate to keep Renata, Francisco pulls a gun and threatens to kill Ulises if they do not stop. Ulises is not scared, so he challenges Francisco to do so, but unexpectedly Francisco, who is inexperienced in the use of arms, accidentally shoots Renata. A few moments later, Renata dies in the arms of Ulises, but not before telling him she loves him. Ulises goes into shock and refuses to accept her death, and the loss of the love of his life. The last scene shows Ulises mourning by the grave of Renata.

Tags: romantic

Review:
"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.
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.
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.
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..
"Amar Te Duele" is one of my favorite films because it happens in the exact zone where I live.
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.
One day he makes eye contact with Renata, a girl from an upper class family, while at a trendy mall.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Great criticism, poor love story.
This is the latest movie of the new Mexican film generation.
While the girl is rich and lives in a bubble, the guy is poor and has a harsh life.
However, what makes this movie worthwile is the way it presents you with clasism in Mexico.
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.
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!
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 extremelynice 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".
This second was well-known and loved by many people in Mexico, although it wasn't that good...
It's a tricky film about a rich girl that falls in love with a poor guy.
Not the best Mexican film of the year, but it is certainly better than flaws like "El crimen del Padre Amaro".
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)..
Amar te duele is a Mexican romeo and juliet, except that every character is over the top and cartoonish.
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.
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..
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....
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.
The actress is the only good thing in the movie.
Bad movie, good actress.
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.
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.
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.
Watching this kind of movies really makes you wonder why the hell they are saying that!.
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.
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...
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..
OK, so a lot of people have been claiming that this film is either trash or a great movie.
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.
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'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.
If you really like the cheesy love films, then this is for you.
Even the cover art really gives it away, with that sacred heart look a like heart that completely rips off Lurhmanns movie art..
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.
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.
Renata and Ulises live a series only seen in movies!
that scene was OBVIOUSLY intended to go for a male audience who would buy or watch the movie in theaters.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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.
She's really annoying like the racist, alcoholic and stupid sister of Renata and does some musical work here.