this movie be about age and love and lose and and come to term with the world a a place of change and violence . however and it be only about these thing and no more . be a message movie with no message and it fail to convince on every level . the protagonist single dimension be his revisit the city of his childhood only to be shock by how different it be ( who know that columbia be a violent place . ) his pseudo existentialist musing fall all over the map ( humanist and misanthropic and rebellious and disillusion ) and convince his young lover even less than the audience . the young lover in question be spar the luxury of be even one dimensional represent he a scripted appendix to the gun in his belt and the stereo blast rock music ( stand in for america cultural hegemony . ) the homosexual relationship between the two character be completely unnecessary and artificial while it seem throw in to raise the controversy factor but lack in chemistry and credibility ( why be they together if it only for the sex and where be the sex . ) it only serve the purpose of bring about the solitary plot twist in the narrative ( namely and the second lover ) and which seem like a desperate attempt to save the movie out of nowhere . the book and upon which the movie be base and have some socratic undercurrent while the movie cleverly translate it into dogmatism ( with a hammer over your head ) rather than irony ( if any question be raise by fernando and they just hover in the vacuum of the director confuse effort to figure out where his movie be go . ) see instead amores perros or ratas and ratones and rateros or read fernando vallejo book .