The Virgin of Juarez (2006)

One of my all time favorites.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The Juarez tragedy is sad thing to exploit for entertainment. I would love to see a film that really focuses on this tragedy (thousands of women getting raped and murdered for over a decade, for those who don't know)and shows the horrors to gain more awareness and maybe create more dialogue with Mexican authorities and U.S. border authorities. An impactful film ala "Hotel Rwanda", "City of God" or "The Battle of Algiers", which tell the stories of the people living in tragedy. BUT, NO!!! We get another film that for reason decides to tell the Juarez story from East Los Angeles and have a full out Cholo battle with LAPD. Yes people, a gang battle with LAPD in a movie about Juarez, Mexico!!! I have to ask Minnie Driver and Angus Macfadyen, "WHY???!!". She's an Academy Award Nominated actor and she decided to do this. Angus was in "Braveheart"!! I can understand the usual Latin Actor suspects being in this (trying to speak Spanish when most of them didn't, sadly). But Minnie and Angus??!!! Anyway, not sure I'll be giving away any spoilers. Expect some horrible dialogue, bad TV directing and cinematography, bad acting, bad editing, bad story line, many clichés, not caring for characters (except for Isidro played by Jorge Cervera Jr.)and of course gang war with LAPD. Can't forget having a gang shoot out in a Latin themed film, right? The Juarez tragedy is barely touched upon and after veering off completely, all you get is a card at the end giving you some facts. By then I'm sure many have turned to another channel, which I should have done. Well, at least I gave it a chance.

I thought this was worth my time, a good effort that drew attention to a subject that has been all but ignored in the press. Obviously a work of fiction, none the less I thought it raised some interesting ideas about what might be behind the very real murders of over 500 women in Juarez.Considering it's small budget the production values were good and the script decent, direction, photography, design, editing were of high standard for a low budget film. The plot moves along well, and kept me interested, certainly more so than many "big budget" films I've seen lately.Whilst this film is not perfect, (show me one that is), I don't think it deserved some of the negative postings it received, particularly those that seem to be sour grapes from disgruntled crew members. It's a movie folks, not a documentary, and one that might bring some badly needed attention to the hundreds of murders still ongoing in Juarez.Good effort, worth seeing.

This movie is a tragedy, because it (Kevin Dobson) had an opportunity to tell a very important story about the horrible murders in Juarez but instead he turned it into a stupid shoot em up farce that has nothing to do with the subject matter. The cast is just stumbling along with this painful script, I know the director is in control and everyone has to work, but my God, did they read this garbage first??? And, poor Angus Macfadyen is so terribly miscast. Why the hell would you cast a Scotsman in the part of a Mexican when all the other Hispanic parts are being played by Hispanics? His inability to pull off a believable accent (Not to mention that bad tan job they did on him) made him look foolish. He's a better actor than this film shows.Go watch something else.

I also saw The Virgin of Juarez at The Latino Film Fest. What is it with these negative comments? I really enjoyed the movie for what it was. Maybe it didn't fit into the box some people wanted it to but it is an art film. I highly recommend this film to anyone. Minnie Driver is excellent and all the cast did a wonderful job. It should play in every movie theater in the country. I will be buying the DVD and recommending it to all my friends. The script may have benefited from a little more work but that is being very critical. If you haven't seen it you should. I really liked the pacing of the film and the way it switched around from Juarez to Los Angeles. i had no idea about the murders down there and this film opened my eyes to a very significant problem.