Gael García Bernal makes restless, difficult young men worth watching without asking us to forgive them. We rate his urgency and vulnerability most highly when a director lets both remain uncomfortable.
Fi1m perspective
Octavio seems incapable of waiting in Amores Perros (2000). Gael García Bernal gives him such restless urgency that we can understand his desperation without approving of what he does. We were unsettled by the performance because it drew us towards a man whose behaviour gave us good reason to keep our distance. García Bernal makes that attraction possible without smoothing away the reasons for our discomfort. It is a strong introduction to what we value in him: he makes a character's feelings matter without suggesting that those feelings excuse his actions.
Alejandro G. Iñárritu's film places that urgency alongside Goya Toledo's difficult Valeria and Emilio Echevarría's quietly sad El Chivo. That contrast matters, because García Bernal need not supply all the tenderness himself. The connections between their stories sometimes feel strained, and he cannot make those contrivances disappear. He does help us care enough about the people to accept them. The actors keep our attention even when the plotting is asking a little too much of our patience.
Y Tu Mamá También (2001), directed by Alfonso Cuarón, gave that early image another setting, with García Bernal as Julio Zapata alongside Diego Luna. His rapport with Luna and the vulnerability of his performance broaden the early impression left by Octavio. The turn towards international work brought The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and Pedro Almodóvar's Bad Education (2004). A historical role in the former and questions of gender and identity in the latter took him beyond a single kind of youthful urgency.
His later work includes voicing Héctor in Coco (2017). We would still send a newcomer to the uncomfortable company of Octavio: the film gives García Bernal plenty to do without requiring us to like the man he plays. Start with Amores Perros, provided its graphic cruelty to dogs is something you can face.
Biography
Gael García Bernal is a Mexican actor and filmmaker. He was born on 30 November 1978 in Guadalajara, Jalisco. He began acting as a child and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
His breakthrough role came as Octavio in Amores Perros (2000). He is also known for performances in Y tu mamá también (2001), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and Babel (2006). García Bernal co-founded the production company Canana Films with Diego Luna.
